Paris, 1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the Bourbon dynasty.
From the early growing pains of marriage to the joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché Axel von Fersen to the devastating Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Marie Antoinette tries to rise above the gossip and rivalries that encircle her. But as revolution blossoms in America, a much larger threat looms beyond the gilded gates of Versailles—one that could sweep away the French monarchy forever.
This adventure novel centers on a young man in the service of King Charles the XII of Sweden. Sir Marmaduke Carstairs is a Jacobite who is denounced as a plotter against King William. He and his son Charlie flee to Sweden. Charlie joins the foreign legion and is honored by his service in several campaigns against the Poles and Russians. (Jacobite refers to a political movement dedicated to restoring the Stuart kings to the throne of England. and Scotland.)
