“Loyal by name and nature.”

Reaching his maturity in this volume, William chafes against the expectations of the Lord Protector, his uncle, George Boleyn, Duke of Rochford. Surrounded by the only people he trusts—sister Elizabeth, best friend Dominic, and spirited Minuette, who has been raised with the Tudor children—William shares his true thoughts only within this intimate circle. Dominic, his right hand, will always do the king’s bidding; Minuette took on a dangerous mission in the last novel to protect William’s name from a scandal created by his enemies, though secretly harboring a passion for Dominic; and Elizabeth is her brother’s staunch supporter, though worried about current behind-the-scenes political machinations and grateful for the advice of Robert Dudley, who hovers around the outside of the tight-knit group.

The political landscape hasn’t changed much, the animosity between Catholics and Protestants a problem William must address constantly. Plots to advance Mary’s cause still brew among dissatisfied and greedy nobles, a potential arranged marriage with a French princess provides a means to quell the bellicose factions. In this volume, the political agendas of rivals take second place to the unfolding personal relationships among the friends, who don’t forget for a minute that one of them is king—the de facto winner in any debate. He may entertain their counsel, but William, settling into his role as sovereign, will not be gainsaid when he has made up his mind. The king has a secret, one he has shared with Dominic and Minuette but not Elizabeth (who is left to work things out for herself.) The court, however, filled with spies and gossip, is abuzz, ripe for a scandal, even the king’s privy council conscious of something amiss at court.

Vacillating between the political and the personal, Andersen builds her drama around the four confidants, the pressures of ruling England affecting them all but Minuette and Dominic most profoundly. The friends are on a collision course with betrayal and heartbreak, a fateful event changing the course of the relationships and the future of England as the author pushes on to the dramatic conclusion to an alternative history as dramatic and tragic as its source, the marriage of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. Each new volume, however, requires the reader to invest in the false premise of its plot, a bit difficult with the passage of events and the time between publications.