A Counterfeit Crown

A fraudster and temptress defrauds rich bankers in an Italian city-state in the early 150th century, before fleeing to the safety of a small rural principality where she buys herself the title of Contessa. The bankers of her past are out for blood; they send a Condottiero to illicitly kidnap her away from the safety of her new home to be brought before the courts of the city-state. The clashing of the Condottiero and the Contessa ends in a way no one would imagine, and suddenly a romance is slowly, perhaps forcefully, formed.