• Hardback
• First Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• 438 pages
• Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

'Someone swore that, as a little girl, he once saw you touch a tiger. And that the tiger didn't harm you, it let you stroke it. It was always said that you had charmed the beast.'

In the winter of 1561, Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrera, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner in the icy hall it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here: he intends to kill her.

Lucrezia is sixteen years old and has led a sheltered life, locked away inside Florence's grandest palazzo, guarded by her father's soldiers and her mother's ladies-in-waiting. Here, in this remote villa, however, she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.

What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge? What chance does she have against Alfonso, the ruler of a province, and a trained soldier? How can she ensure her survival?