Michel and Angele [A Ladder of Swords] — Volume 2

In the glittering world of Elizabeth’s court, a humble yet proud butler from Jersey finds himself thrust into a bewildering tableau of ceremony, power, and danger. Lempriere of Rozel watches the Queen’s retinue perform a solemn banquet, where the Duke’s daughter—radiant and fierce—offers him a secretive favor. Amid the clatter of gold‑laden dishes and the quiet murmur of intrigue, he is forced to answer the monarch’s sharp questions about a Frenchman named Michel de la Foret, a man whose fate now hangs in the balance.

The story follows Lempriere’s precarious dance between loyalty to his sovereign and the tangled loyalties of his island kin. With his honor and his very head at stake, he must navigate the jealous glances of powerful nobles, the veiled threats of the Yeomen of the Guard, and the whispered promises of a daring pirate’s rescue. As the banquet ends, the tension rises, leaving the butler poised on the edge of a decision that could change the course of his family’s legacy.