The angel and the sword

the long version

The Nazi Party have a firm hold of 1930s Germany, and when willful Henrietta Arabella, the youthful Duchess of Loxley, is sent on a tour of Europe by her formidable grandmother Katherine, it is to remove her from the temptation of an unsuitable love affair. For once escaping her companion, alone and lost in an insalubrious area of Venice, Hettie finds herself in great danger, setting off an incredible chain of events involving a German Count, the theft of secret war office papers, and a fantastical tale of the Saxon King and Queen, Edmund and Elgiva, and the magnificent broadsword, Aelric, the Peace-maker.