Fleur-de-lis

Fleur's life depends upon her outwitting the man she is drawn to above all others. France 1793. After the dispersal of her family in the bloody upheaval of the French Revolution, Fleur de Montbulliou, a beautiful young aristocrat, is forced into hiding. While she is living a hand-to-mouth existence in the countryside, her chance encounter with a mysterious stranger results in a marriage proposal. Determined to survive, Fleur weds a dying man she hardly knows and assumes a new identity as the widow of Matthieu Bosanquet, a prosperous merchant from the city. And so she is swept into the very heart of Paris, a place as treacherous as it is exciting. As the widow Bosanquet and in a further disguise as the provocative actress La Coquette, she is adored and feted by the deputies of the Revolution, and plays a hazardous game of double deception. However, to preserve her precious freedom, she must outwit one particular man - the cool, intelligent deputy Raoul de Villaret. As political unrest plunges Paris yet more deeply into chaos, Fleur will be forced to take ever greater risks. In a glittering, dangerous world where anything might happen, can love survive? Perfect for fans of Katherine McMahon and Baroness Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel. "This outstanding novel cements (Isolde Martyn's) reputation for exceptional romantic historical fiction." - Margaret Barr, The Historical Novels Review