![]() ![]() ![]() Into this world of repression and suspicion, Ariana Franklin brings Adelia Aguilar, an orphan found on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius and raised by unlikely parents: a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, both of whom were doctors and teachers of medicine. Cathars were persecuted and the first stirrings of the Spanish Inquisition were felt. King Henry II of England was a strong and progressive monarch in a time when the world was under the control of the Holy Roman Church. What Adelia finds is terror and an old enemy determined to bring her down-and anyone else who gets in his way. The task is simple: bring Joanna safely to Sicily and return. To make sure Adelia returns to England when her task is finished, King Henry sends Adelia’s daughter to be tutored in the more ladylike arts by Queen Eleanor in her prison. Once again, King Henry commands Adelia from her quiet life with her young daughter to accompany his daughter Joanna to Palermo where she will marry the King of Sicily and cement yet another European alliance. She is under the protection-and the command-of King Henry II as his mistress of death. In England, where women doctors are anathema and burned at the stake as witches, Adelia Aguilar has made a reluctant home. Mystery, intrigue and a knack for trouble illuminate a dark corner of history. ![]()
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