• Paperback
• Condition: Good
• 501 pages
• Fiction: Historical
• Book 2/2 in the Francis Quoynt series

Young, beautiful and as dangerous as gunpowder, Principessa Sofia will do almost anything to get what she wants.

Robert Cecil, Secretary of State to James I, is in serious trouble. He has borrowed money from the Prince of La Spada on secret terms that could lose him everything including his life. The Prince, dying but still treacherous, will negotiate with only one man, Cecil's firemaster: Francis Quoynt. Cecil seizes the chance, for Quoynt is not only the best in his business, he is also an accomplished spy.

La Spada is a wealthy, beautiful Italian city state, perfectly placed to control intelligence and trade between Europe and the East. But an unexpected purpose waits there for Quoynt, who is recruited into a bloody war of ambitions: between the volatile Prince, his illegitimate son who is now his heir and, most lethal of all, his daughter, Sofia - the Principessa.

Sofia is seductive, well-educated and recently widowed. Only eighteen, she is already a seasoned player of politics and could outdo Lucretia Borgia in the game of survival. Now she must use all her wiles to save herself and her beloved state, but will she choose to seek Francis' heart or his life? Or both?