THE FIRST MARIE and the Queen of Scots (The Queen of Scots Suite) (Volume 1)

The astonishingly beautiful queen who reigned at the Twelfth Night festivities at Holyrood in 1564 was not the Queen of Scots, but her petite blond cousin Marie Flemyng, the first of the queen's Four Maries. She won her night of sovereignty in a lottery in which she found a bean hidden in a slice of cake. Her brief reign was so spellbinding that reports reached the courts of Europe. The English ambassador to Scotland described her as a mix of the goddesses Venus, Juno and Minerva. --The counterfeit queen had been a conscripted playmate of the queen since she was four, tucked away at Inchmahome with three other girls of the same age and name--the Four Maries. Within days, the Dowager declared that dealing with five little girls named Marie was out of the question. Only the queen was permitted to retain her name. Since Marie Flemyng had been called Mally by her father, she hoped to escape relabeling. However, when the French-born mothers of the other girls tried it on their tongues, Mally sounded too much like Marie. The Dowager renamed her La Flamina, although no Flemyng had been to Flanders since 1066. The little queen shortened it to Flamie to silence her cousin's complaints. The Four Maries accompanied the queen to France to escape an English army when they were five. Thirteen years later the Scots at the French court had been culled to an essential few. Flamie’s mother had been deported for having a love child to the king. Heroldest brother James, Chancellor of Scotland had been poisoned on his homebound journey following Marie Stuart's wedding to the dauphin Francois, who had become King of France when his father was killed in a jousting accident. The First Marie lost all hope of going home. But when pathetic King Francois died of a brain disease, the teenage Queen of Scots was no longer Queen of France,and elected to return to Scotland to assume personal rule of her country, a tragic choice for Marie Stuart, but not for her First Marie. --As the Twelfth Night ball progressed, most of the attendees were charmed by its French flavor and romantic allure, but others were less seduced by the revelries of the Catholic Queen of Scots. To them Marie Stuart was the true Queen of Misrule and they were willing to do murder to be rid of her. Had the queen of the ball been clairvoyant, the ritual of unmasking would have exposed a cabal feigning obeisance to the youthful queen while secretly plotting her fall. Swept up by the moment, the First Marie played her role as if born to it, oblivious to the undercurrent of treason and deceit that would threaten Marie Stuart's crown, and eventually, her life. There was another formidable Scot in attendance at the ball. He was Maitland of Lethiington, the Scottish Secretary of State who was dubbed by Elizabeth Tudor as the 'flower of the wits of Scotland', one of the most sophiticated men in Britain and a legend for his charm and wiles. But that night, he stood speechless in the shadows and utterly devoid of wit, spellbound by the woman he called Mally. Together they faced the turmoil of Marie Stuart's disastrous reign and the conflicts and intrigues of the Scottish Reformation, in a saga that one reader describes as a 'love story for the ages.' It is not an historical romance, but a romantic historical that has been called 'a page-turner', 'a wonderful book'-'a compelling tale that draws you in,' ' splendid' and 'a work of art.' Amazon customers give the first edition an average review of 4.375 stars.