Scotland rejoices. The scent of lilies, symbols of hope and renewal, fills Stirling Castle as Queen Isobel prepares to wed the powerful Laird Lachlan Mac Kay. But beneath the veneer of celebration, a viper lies coiled, ready to strike. At the height of the wedding feast, the queen collapses, poisoned. The lilies, once emblems of a bright future, become chilling reminders of a kingdom teetering on the brink of chaos.
Eleanor Ainsworth, the queen’s lady-in-waiting, is consumed by grief and a burning thirst for justice. Haunted by the unresolved trauma of her family’s massacre, she vows to unmask the killer. Sir William Kirkpatrick, a knight shunned for his unorthodox methods but respected for his sharp mind, joins her perilous quest. Their investigation leads them from the opulent castle to the windswept Highlands, uncovering a conspiracy far more intricate than mere regicide.
Suspicion initially falls upon the Mac Kays, rivals to the throne. But a hidden seam in the queen’s gown, embroidered with a rare pigment found only in the secluded monastery of St. Duthac, reveals a deeper, more sinister plot. As Eleanor and William delve into the monks’ clandestine activities, they uncover a web of political manipulation and religious fervor, their every step shadowed by danger.
Eleanor’s pursuit of truth unearths a devastating secret: her family’s hidden connection to St. Duthac. The hunter becomes the hunted, her past colliding violently with her present. William, too, confronts the ghosts of his past, the monks’ methods mirroring tactics he once employed, forcing a reckoning with his own moral compromises.
Their investigation points to Brother Ailbe, a charismatic monk whose sermons ignite the passions of the common people. But the true mastermind lurks closer to the throne than they could have imagined. The scent of lilies, now a chilling reminder of betrayal, leads Eleanor and William to a heart-stopping confrontation in the royal chapel, where the serpent’s venom threatens to shatter the very foundation of the kingdom. In a desperate race against time, they must expose the truth before Scotland is consumed by the flames of a religious war, even if that truth leaves them irrevocably changed.
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