In Elizabethan England a dastardly Spanish plot to take over the throne is uncovered and it''s up to Agent Archie Noble to save Queen and country.

Spoiled, arrogant, filthy rich and breathtakingly beautiful, the young Lady Godiva Dacre is exiled from the court of Good Queen Bess (who can''t abide red-haired competition) to her lonely estate in distant Cumberland. But the turbulent Scottish border is the last place for an Elizabethan heiress, beset by ruthless reivers, blackmailing ruffians and fiendish Spanish plotters intent on turning Merrie England into a ghastly European Union province.

And no one to rely on but her half-witted blonde school chum, a rugged English superman with a knack for disaster, a dashing highwayman who looks like Errol Flynn but has a Glasgow accent and the drunkest man in Scotland. MacDonald Fraser admits (nay, insists) that it''s a crazy story for readers who love fun for its own sake.