Dol?a--mistress, muse, and lifelong love of Miguel de Cervantes--paints her story against the rich backdrop of Golden Age Spain as she bravely undertakes a journey from Barcelona to Madrid at the behest of her dying paramour.The daughter of a wealthy merchant, young Dol?a Llull Prat was besotted with the dashing, bootstrapping author from their first meeting. Despite Miguel's entreaties, the ever-practical Dol?a, with her love of luxury and her devotion to her own art, repeatedly refused to upend her life for him, although she always welcomed his attentions on her own terms. When Miguel renders her as the lowly Dulcinea in his great Quixote, revealing their association, he commits an unforgivable offense, and their decades-long affinity is severed, until he reaches out to her one last time.The roads of Spain are no place for a noblewoman seeking to reunite with her former lover, but Dol?a needs to unburden herself of a secret. Disguised as a peasant and accompanied by her trusted nursemaid, Dol?a makes the difficult trek, facing bandits, the menacing reach of the Inquisition, and her own misgivings. Will she arrive in time? And if she does, will she be able to confide to Miguel what she has concealed from him for so many years?While Dulcinea only ever appears in the imagination of Don Quixote, the hero of Cervantes's famous novel, Veciana-Suarez's richly imagined heroine leaps from these pages as a woman of flesh and blood--one who is filled with desire, doubt, and most of all, a determination to live. Dulcinea, a lush, dual-timeline novel of passion and adventure, explores the choices we make in life, the regrets we harbor, and the courage we find to make amends.