The Virgin's Spy: A Tudor Legacy Novel [Paperback]

US“[Laura] Andersen delivers another dramatic thriller complete with spies, battles, ruthless villains and twists on historical events that draw the reader deeply into the lives of her characters. There is magic here, and Andersen’s fantastic storytelling will keep readers coming back for more.”—RT Book Reviews(4 1/2 stars, Top Pick!)31 December 1582
Hampton Court Palace

My dear Robert,

How often I have longed for your presence these many years! And yet, I do hesitate to write so much for fear of seeming but a weak and sentimental woman. Almost I can hear your teasing words, warm in my ear: “Since when do you care what others think?”

The answer, of course, is since I became queen. A ruling queen of a divided country cannot afford even the appearance of weakness. Which is why I do not speak of you, not even to those nearest to me. And hardly do I even allow myself to think of you.

Occasionally, though, I cannot control my thoughts. And I find myself wondering how my years of ruling might have been different with you at my side. Perhaps even literally so, for your Amy died less than two years after I came to my throne. Had you lived, my sweet Robin, what temptations might have assailed me then! To have a husband not only of my choosing, but of my heart? I look now at my Anabel, at her instinctive resistance to a marriage of state, and I both understand and wonder what might have been.

It would have been most difficult, for you were hardly a good prospect even for a princess royal, let alone a ruling queen. A fifth son, a father and a brother executed for treason, already married . . . but I am remarkably stubborn. Almost, I can envision the fight I might have made. For a rarity, I suspect Walsingham and Burghley would have been on the same side in opposing me. Though I do wonder what possible marital choice I might have ló,