16th century

Maid of the King’s Court

Clever, headstrong Elizabeth Rose Camperdowne knows her duty. As the sole heiress to an old but impoverished noble family, Eliza must marry a man of wealth and title — it’s the only fate for a girl of her standing. But when a surprising turn of events lands her in the royal court as a maid of honor to Anne of Cleves, Eliza is drawn into the dizzying, dangerous orbit of Henry the Eighth and struggles to distinguish friend from foe. Is her glamorous flirt of a cousin, Katherine Howard, an ally in this deceptive place, or is she Eliza’s worst enemy? And then there’s Ned Barsby, the king’s handsome page, who is entirely unsuitable for Eliza but impossible to ignore.

Cross My Heart

When Laura della Scala’s older sister drowns, Laura leaves the shelter of the convent where she has spent the last six years and enters the upper echelons of sixteenth-century Venetian society, while she searches for the truth about what happened to her sister.

Brave Donatella and the Jasmine Thief

The jasmine plant was Duke Cosimo de Medici’s most treasured possession and he went to great pains to keep it all for himself. When the gardener Antonio clips a sprig of the forbidden jasmine for his love, he is sent to prison. Now brave Donatella, Antonio’s beloved, is his only hope for freedom. Antonio and Donatella flee the wrath of Duke Cosimo de Medici, and they use that rare plant to make a fresh start.

Don Quixote

Don Quixote has forever memorialized the story of a Spanish gentleman who reads so many books about chivalric knighthood that he is convinced his own destiny is to become a knight-errant. And so he embarks upon a series of fantastical adventures across sixteenth-century Spain, accompanied by his faithful and philosophical squire, Sancho Panza.

Shylock’s Daughter

Sixteen-year-old Jessica, who longs to be free of the restrictions of her father and life in the Jewish ghetto of sixteen-century Venice, falls in love with a Christian aristocrat and must make choices which will affect her whole family. Inspired by Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice.

Plots and Players

Robin, Philip, and Frances, exiled Portuguese Jews secretly practicing their faith in intolerant sixteenth-century London, fight against the poison of prejudice in trying to save the life of Queen Elizabeth’s Jewish doctor.