Francis and Mary must pay Antoine handsomely to reject a lucrative alliance with their enemy, Elizabeth of England, who wants a garrison in the Pyrenees. Antoine confides only in reluctant brother Louis he believes that Bash killed their elder brother, Marcus Bourbon, during the Italian Wars, and wants vengeance by killing Bash or seducing Kenna. Bash investigates a commoner who was, like others, allegedly resurrected from the dead by a woman in white. Francis, Mary and court physicians attribute Catherine's a vision of Francis's death to syphilis, but Narcisse questions the local symptoms and helps discover she is rather slowly poisoned by the pages of Henry's old Bible, which must slowly have turning Henry insane. Mary sleeps again with Francis but can't bare a male breath after all, so she suggests the king finds another lover.
—KGF Vissers