by Jean Plaidy
My mother became ill and she died within a few days. That was not all. William Aigret caught the fever from her and very soon afterwards he was dead.
It was a time of great mourning. It was then that I realized how much I had cared for my mother and that William Aigret had been such a loving little boy.
It was a great loss. There were only two children now—Petronilla and myself, but I had become the heiress of Aquitaine.
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Available from Three Rivers Press wherever books are sold
BOOKS BY JEAN PLAIDY
FROM THREE RIVERS PRESS
THE WIVES OF HENRY VIII
The Rose Without a Thorn
The Lady in the Tower
Katharine of Aragon
The Sixth Wife
THE TUDOR PRINCESSES
Mary, Queen of France
The Thistle and the Rose
THE TUDOR QUEENS
In the Shadow of the Crown
Queen of This Realm
The Royal Road to Fotheringhay
Victoria Victorious
The Loves of Charles II
THE NORMAN TRILOGY
The Bastard King
The Lion of Justice
The Passionate Enemies
THE PLANTAGENET SAGA
Plantagenet Prelude
The Revolt of the Eaglets
The Heart of the Lion
The Prince of Darkness
The Battle of the Queens
The Queen from Provence
Edward Longshanks
The Follies of the King
The Vow on the Heron
Passage to Pontefract
The Star of Lancaster
Epitaph for Three Women
Red Rose of Anjou
The Sun in Spendor
THE TUDOR NOVELS
Uneasy Lies the Head
Katharine, the Virgin Widow
The Shadow of the Pomegranate
The King’s Secret Matter
Murder Most Royal
St. Thomas’ Eve
Gay Lord Robert
The Spanish Bridegroom
THE STUART SAGA
The Captive Queen of Scots
The Murder in the Tower
The Wandering Prince
The Three Crowns
The Haunted Sisters
The Queen’s Favorites
THE GEORGIAN SAGA
The Princess of Celle
Queen in Waiting
Caroline the Queen
The Prince and the Quakeress
The Third George
Perdita’s Prince
Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill
Indiscretions of the Queen
The Regent’s Daughter
Goddess of the Green Room
Victoria in the Wings
THE QUEEN VICTORIA SERIES
The Captive of Kensington Palace
The Queen and Lord M
The Queen’s Husband
The Widow of Windsor
THE FERDINAND AND ISABELLA TRILOGY
Castille for Isabella
Spain for the Sovereigns
Daughter of Spain
THE LUCREZIA BORGIA SERIES
Madonna of the Seven Hills
Light on Lucrezia
THE MEDICI TRILOGY
Madame Serpent
The Italian Woman
Queen Jezebel
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION SERIES
Louis the Well-Beloved
Flaunting, Extravagant Queen
The Road to Compienge
Myself, My Enemy
Evergreen Gallant
The Goldsmith’s Wife
Beyond the Blue Mountains
Defenders of the Faith
The Scarlet Cloak
Daughter of Satan
Copyright 1949, 1972 by Jean Plaidy
Reader’s Guide copyright 2006 by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. The excerpt is from The Courts of Love, copyright 1987 by Jean Plaidy.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
THREE RIVERS PRESS and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in Great Britain by Robert Hale, London, in 1949, and subsequently in the United States by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, in 1973.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Plaidy, Jean, 1906–1993
Murder most royal / Jean Plaidy.
Includes reader’s guide.
1. Anne Boleyn, Queen, consort of Henry VIII, King of England, 1507–1536—Fiction. 2. Catherine Howard, Queen, consort of Henry VIII, King of England, d. 1542—Fiction. 3. Great Britain—History—Henry VIII, 1509–1547—Fiction. 4. Henry VIII, King of England, 1491–1547—Fiction. 5. Queens—Great Britain—
Fiction. I. Title.
PR6015.I3M77 2006
823'.914—dc222005008992
eISBN: 978-0-307-34539-4
v3.0
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