A Reluctant Assassin
London. Autumn, 1589.
In the turbulent year following the near-disaster of the Spanish Armada, ex-artillery captain Will Revill is summoned by the Queen’s Vice-Chamberlain and spymaster Sir Thomas Heneage.
Revill is given a secret mission: to travel to the Surrey manor of Sir Abel Stanbury – and kill him.
Accompanied by his loyal ex-sergeant of gunnery, Tom Bright, Revill rides down to Farthingdown Manor with a heavy heart. His cover is that he has been sent by the Queen’s Surveyor of Works to inspect the place as a potential stopover on her next summer progress.
Revill finds himself trusted by Lady Gisela Stanbury – and alarmingly, he takes to the eccentric Sir Abel and considers him harmless. Why would Heneage want him eliminated?
As well as friends, however, the agent makes a dangerous enemy in the form of Lewis Turnbull, a suitor to Sir Abel’s daughter – Lady Charis.
A Reluctant Traitor
Normandy. January 1590.
Civil War rages in France, and Captain Will Revill – veteran of the war in the Low Countries – finds himself at the heart of events.
Revill and Tom Bright, his loyal companion and now corporal of artillery, have been sent by Queen Elizabeth as part of the force supporting the Protestant King Henri IV in his power struggle against the Catholic League, led by the Duc de Mayenne.
Having pounded the Castle of Falaise into submission, the English gunners are looking forward to returning home – whereupon, to his annoyance, Revill is challenged to a duel by a pompous French officer.
He is ready to meet the challenge when the duel is interrupted by a messenger claiming to be from the King. The young man, however, Guy Baildon, turns out to be something else: an agent for spymaster Sir Thomas Heneage. Heneage, who still wields power over Revill, has sent new orders: Revill must travel to Paris with Baildon on a mission to test the loyalty of the English ambassador Sir Edward Stafford, who is suspected of treachery.
The soldier must become a spy if he is to succeed – or even survive. Paris is a dangerous city and a hive of espionage, the haunt of agents and double agents.
A Reluctant Hero
England. August 1591.
Will Revill embarks on what he hopes will be his final mission.
On orders of Queen Elizabeth’s new spymaster, Sir Robert Cecil, he must join the staff of Lord Ballater, an embittered Catholic, who like most of the nobility is following the Queen’s annual Summer Progress.
Revill’s task is to keep a close watch on Ballater’s staunchly Catholic servants – one of whom Cecil believes intends to make an attempt on the Queen’s life. As the great train of several hundred people traverses the Southern Counties, Elizabeth is often exposed to grave danger.
But the mystery takes another turn when, aided by Cecil’s undercover agent John Shearer, Revill uncovers a scheme run by the Crown Purveyors to divert funds from the royal coffers.
When the Queen’s train reaches Chichester, a plot is at last laid bare – and an old enemy comes out of the shadows.
