Joaquim Vanderas, degenerate and supreme swordsman, has come to Great Britain, hired by English Royalists to take on the armies of Parliament. He has done so before--years past, in the first outbreak of civil war--and the Roundheads remember his atrocities better than he himself. Taken prisoner, he faces the noose. A surprise development spares him: Charles Stuart is on the run. The Roundheads' general offers pardon, and Vanderas is only happy to hunt down a king. But on meeting a mysterious Irishwoman he finds that he is not the only pawn among the ranks--nor the most dangerous.
