It is Nottingham in the age of Elizabeth, and William Shakespeare, still years from immortality, walks its streets as an ambitious young playwright with everything to prove. Into his path rides Anne Feversham, the Constable's daughter, a young woman who defies every expectation placed upon her class and gender. She rides astride in hawking breeches, carries a merlin on her wrist, and looks at the world with eyes that hold "mist and fire." When Shakespeare encounters her, he recognizes something vanishingly rare: a spirit that refuses to be caged. But Anne's rebellion comes at a terrible cost. A young man named Gervase Heriot faces execution for allegedly plotting against the Queen, and as the noose tightens, so do the constraints closing around Anne herself. She finds herself caught between her father's ambition, her growing fascination with the playwright, and the terrible price of choosing her own path. Snaith writes with verve and passion about a young woman who discovers that freedom and desire both carry their own weight of consequence.
