RATING: SUPERB
SPOILERS!!!
This is one of the best books I have read in a long time.
After recovering, Candamo goes to see Olimpia Mancini, the Countess of Soisson, who used to be one of the queen's waiting ladies. The woman tells him she can't see him then, but asks him to go and see her the next day at 8 in the evening, quite late. We know that Candamo is being followed, and the man following him seems to be Captain Contreras. When Candamo talks to Olimpia, she says that she can only give him a few minutes as she has a prior engagement in half an hour. Olimpia doesn't give him much information, and Candamo goes as far as mentioning her involvement in a case of poisoning in which many noblemen and women were executed for poisioning spouses or relatives. Olimpia was accused of killing her husband, but instead of being executed, she was banished from court. Olimpia refuses to acknoledge that, and Candamo can't make her talk. He also notices several trunks full of clothes, and Olimpia tells him that she is planning to leave for France.
When Candamo leaves, he feels terrified as he knows he is being followed. Then he sees a man wrapped up in a cloak and pointing at him, and he closes his eyes, expecting the worst. There is a shot, and when he opens his eyes, he sees the man on the ground. Captain Contreras appears and tells him that they need to move the body. He confesses that the Prime Minister asked him to follow him and protect him. The dead man has a medallion with the initial SM, but they have no idea what that could mean. Candamo and Contreras go back home, and Catalina is upset, and when Candamo tells him about his interview with Olimipia, and witty Catalina mentions that if Olimpia had been banished from France for life, how can she return to France?
Candamo and Contreras think that the French king must be involved and that is why Olimpia has been given a pardon. The investigations continue and Contreras has to fight three men when they try to kill Candamo again. With the help of Catalina, who distracts Susana Duperroy's fiancé, Candamo manages to talk to the woman, who finally admits to having overheard a conversation between Olimpia and some men in which it was clear they talked about poisoning the queen and someone said that Louis XIV was not going to keep put in the matter. Then Candamo goes to see Olimpia and tells her that she will have to face torture in the most horrible way, but she still won't talk. Then when he leaves, he and Contreras keep watch and when the woman goes out of her home, they follow him, and she ends up in the palace of the Ambassador of Germany. This means, Cardamo thinks, that the fool called Visitor was right and everybody is involved. With the death of the Queen Louis XIV could have possibilities to inherit the throne of Spain as he is grandson, son and husband of royal Spaniards, and the only one who could give Carlos II a child was Maria Luisa. And Leopold wanted to stop the powe of Louis XIV and Maria Luisa was his niece.
Contreras, Catalina and Candamo go to talk to the king and tell him everything, and then the king tells them that he is not going to do anything. Spain is not the empire it used to be, and if he decided to face the nobility and the European royalty, he would not win and he could not lose Spain. Candamo feels upset but he and the others understand the king.
The epilogue shows what happened to the characters afterwards.
I really loved this book and I learnt a lot about this part of the history of Spain which I knew very little about.
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