Continuing the GUARDIANS OF THE CROWN series with a story of spies and traitors and a time when the price of betrayal is death...

London 1654: As England languishes in the grip of the reign of Oliver Cromwell, there are those who plot to restore the King.

Fleeing her old life, Thamsine Granville has nothing left to lose. Alone and friendless, the desperate act of throwing a brick at the coach of Oliver Cromwell could well mean her death. Only the act of a stranger saves her.

Kit Lovell is one of the King's men, a disillusioned Royalist who passes his time cheating at cards, living off his wealthy and attractive mistress, and plotting the death of Oliver Cromwell.

Far from the bored, benevolent rescuer that he seems, Kit plunges Thamsine into his world of espionage and betrayal - a world that has no room for falling in love.

Torn between Thamsine and loyalty to his master and King, Kit's carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel and to save Thamsine he must make one last desperate gamble - the cost of which might be his life.