What did it mean? The note with the hieroglyphs was found in the pocket of a man lying dead in an alley. The only other item of interest on him was a piece of jewellery, a reproduction of the Charlemagne talisman, but so well done that Vicky Bliss thought she was being shown the real thing. The gold work had been done by a master craftsman; the stones were of top quality synthetic…Vicky didn’t know what it meant yet, but ion the sundrenched streets and moonlit courtyards of Rome, she was going to find out – if the dangerously exciting Englishman didn’t get in her way!