'My dear friend. I know not how long I shall live hereafter, nor do I fear death. But I fear the manner of my passing and those, mine enemies who have the ear and heart of my husband, their cruelty I fear very much. My husband, in his mercy has granted me leave to seek you and hire your services. I dare to address you in terms of affection, for I believe that you parted from me in much bitterness. Therefore I beg you, as a good Christian man to lay aside any resentment and to remember the sweet times we shared together. I ...
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'My dear friend. I know not how long I shall live hereafter, nor do I fear death. But I fear the manner of my passing and those, mine enemies who have the ear and heart of my husband, their cruelty I fear very much. My husband, in his mercy has granted me leave to seek you and hire your services. I dare to address you in terms of affection, for I believe that you parted from me in much bitterness. Therefore I beg you, as a good Christian man to lay aside any resentment and to remember the sweet times we shared together. I beg you too, on my bended knees to show me mercy. My dear friend Elinor will pay passage for you to accompany her and her men-at-arms to be with me, should God permit, in my final hours. Written this eighth day of May Anne Boleyn, Queen of England.' Jean Rombaud, swordsman and executioner, receives a commission from the disgraced Queen of England to end her life swiftly. And so begins a journey that will test his resolve to the uttermost. Elinor Lee, close friend and confidante to Queen Anne struggles to fulfil her friend's wish, increasingly aware of her own divided loyalties and the realisation that Jean is an unstable and haunted man. Set against the backdrop of the Reformation, with the spread of the printed word, and the challenges it presented to the centuries-old Establishment, the story tells of the lengths men and women would go to in order to acquire the book that would rock the Church to its foundation - the Bible in English.
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