Found: Woman that can transport to Alternate Earth Sci Fi Series?

Hi, I'm desperately trying to find a serieis I read maybe 15 or so years ago, contemporary sci fi. It's a short series of at least 2-3 books with the main character being a female who was adopted that gets transported from her office chair into a forest when she traces over a rune/sigil she found in a box that her Mom had kept for her. Turns out she is was hidden away for her safety and is from a lineage of people that can transport themselves to and from an alternate Earth. She ends up there and knows nothing about her history. I think she may be a researcher, or have understanding of medieval history. This alternate Earth seems to have a strong germanic feudal society with a ruling class of other men and women that have her same power. There are castles and serfs yet modern electronics for the wealthy few. She gets sucked into heavy family politics and I think she is kept secluded within the castle once she is found out and has to craft an escape. This society is very misogynistic, with women valued for breeding, rather than for their brains or what they can bring. People can translocate by viewing a special sigil, I think some get it tattooed on themselves, or carry it like the inside of a pocket watch or something like that. There's another faction that comes up, later in the book or possibly the sequal, of another familyline that's Asian, where they are primiarly located in yet a third "Earth."

Later on, the FMC opens up a business on the third "earth" transporting ideas instead of contriband, such as a type of braking tires, and starts up a factory to build wealth and power. In the one her family line is from, they transport drugs and other stolen goods into and out of the original Earth to make money, and help get into difficult places for assasinations and such. I think there's ways of blocking this power by building underground or going into high-rise towers. It's heavy on the politics and logistics. Any ideas?

Probably Charles Stross’s The Merchant Princes series, starting with The Family Trade. He rewrote the first books at some point, as I understand.

There’s 9 novels in total, at this point. Lots of reading. I actually only read the final three ones.

OMG Yes, that's the book/series. Thank you! This has been driving me nuts for years.

>4 tazarat: Glad I could help. Somewhere on his blog, Stross says what he did in rewriting the first novels.