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aned daughter of a Polish bookbinder, a lowly servant who has only her cunning and her intelligence to raise her station in life. Sophia is a German princess, a pretty girl with a domineering, foolish mother and one chance to change her destiny--to marry the Duke Peter, nephew of the Empress and next in line for Russia's throne. Barbara becomes Varvara, one of the most cunning spies for the Chancellor of Russia and for the Empress Elizabeth. Listening to the conversations, learning every detail, she can change lives with a well-placed word in the ear of Russia's monarch. Sophia becomes Catherine the Great. As these two young women grow up, each will play a role in the greater glory of the Russian empire. Before her reign will have ended, Catherine will have brought Russia into the modern age, with culture and a military to rival any other nation in the world. She will do it through ruthlessness. She will do it through brilliance. She will do it through her most loyal spies, those who are invisible to others, those who hear and see all...