The Winter Palace

Her name is Barbarain Russian, Varvara. Nimble-witted and attentive, shes allowed into the employ of the Empress Elizabeth, amid the glitter and cruelty of the worlds most eminent court. Under the tutelage of Count Bestuzhev, Chancellor and spymaster, Varvara will be educated in skills from lock picking to lovemaking, learning above all else to listen and to wait for opportunity. That opportunity arrives in a slender young princess from Zerbst named Sophie, a playful teenager destined to become the indomitable Catherine the Great. Sophies destiny at court is to marry the Empresss nephew, but she has other, loftier, more dangerous ambitions, and she proves to be more guileful than she first appears. What Sophie needs is an insider at court, a loyal pair of eyes and ears who knows the traps, the conspiracies, and the treacheries that surround her. Varvara will become Sophies confidante and together the two young women will rise to the pinnacle of absolute power.