Valentina had been admired, married, widowed, yet had never known love . . .

Not even at the illustrious court of Queen Elizabeth, where her innocent, violet-eyed beauty fired the hearts of England's most gallant gentry, especially the roguish Earl of Kempe and the irrepressible Lord Padraic Burke.

But her innocence shattered when a deathbed confession revealed that her true father might not have been Lord Bliss, but the lustful Sultan Murad of Istanbul. Determined to find the truth, Valentina sets sail for the East, a voyage of unsurpassed danger . . . and sensual discovery.

Contains mature themes.