Series: Signet Eclipse | Publication Date: August 7, 2007
It seems Meriel-called Merry-looks exactly like the wife of Lord Giles, Earl of Warborough, whose legendary heroism has long sent a thrill down Merry's spine. Giles's cold, unfaithful wife is known to be a spy for the Dutch. Coerced by the British king's spymaster, Merry takes the traitor's place as a double-agent-with the aim of delivering false intelligence to the waiting Dutch.
But Merry's dangerous mission only fans the flames of her smoldering desire for Giles-even as Giles is overtaken by passion for a "wife" who's suddenly become all he ever wanted.
Less than a week after arriving in London, Merry leaps the social ladder from lady's maid to lady. It all happens once the king's spymaster discovers Merry's uncommon likeness to Felice, the Countess of Warborough. It seems that the countess, currently a permanent guest of the Tower, was selling English military secrets to the Dutch. The head of Charles II's spy network hopes to fool the Dutch by substituting Merry for Felice. But Merry must first convince Felice's husband, Giles, that she is his wife. Swept up in a dangerous masquerade, Merry soon finds the most difficult part of her new life is deceiving the man she now loves. A carefully crafted plot, a fascinating historical setting, and two expertly matched protagonists blend brilliantly together in a captivating tale of deception and desire as Westin continues her refreshingly different Restoration series, which began with Lady Anne's Dangerous Man (2006). Charles, John
When I was a child, my family seemed to be steeped in the love of historical lore.
I heard stories of my ancestors, the Dutch ship captain who eloped with a young French woman to settle in New York and Maryland. Another, who fought in the Revolutionary war at Valley Forge...but fortunately for him, in the summer.
My one grandfather told me stories of his Virginia grandfather, a Confederate cavalryman and showed me his sword with a once gilt tassel hanging from the hilt. My other grandfather recited a story of his grandfather who joined the Union army and lost a best friend, who fought for the south. For the rest of their lives, they passed in their little town on the opposite sides of the street and never spoke.
It's clear to me now that I was meant to be a reader and writer of historical novels from a very early age. My mother took me to the library when I was six to get my library card and to choose my first book. The one that most caught my attention was The Little Cave Boy and Girl, the first of a series about children through history. From that beginning, I continued to read historical non-fiction and fiction all my life, always fascinated by every aspect of earlier times. (Don't tell anyone, but I took books on my honeymoon and I can remember my husband's puzzlement when he saw me reading The History of Diseases. "It's interesting," I explained...difficult for a bridegroom to believe. He's since seen me read many similar books without surprise.)
I'm not alone. Most writers I know read curiously and voraciously as children, not realizing we're storing facts and ideas for future use. Sooner or later, some of us become enthralled with a particular historical period. Above all, I love British history and most particularly the Tudor period of the 1500s. Many women are drawn to Elizabethan novels. One of the strongest rulers in history, certainly the greatest queen, Elizabeth was also a woman we want to know and understand. We do know, she loved dancing, parties and handsome, well-dressed men and because of her personal charisma, she fascinated some of the greatest men of her era, even into, what was then, the ancient age of near seventy years.
She held Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester's love and loyalty until the day he died, carrying her own love for him in her heart until her own death. Of all her admirers, her Sweet Robin was most dear to her. Elizabeth was observed many times reading and re-reading his letters, mining the affection in them. Leicester waited for twenty years hoping to marry her before giving up and marrying Lettice Knollys, Elizabeth's hated cousin. She forgave him but banished Lettice, whom she called "that She-Wolf" from her court forever. Though he married, Robin's and Elizabeth's need for each other never ended and she kept him constantly beside her.
Elizabeth was a master at subterfuge, orchestrating many marriage proposals and contracts with the royalty of Europe as a way to keep England safe from attack. Yet, she never submitted to marriage in spite of the pleas of her Council, Parliament and people for an heir. Marriage to her meant sharing, or losing her power to a husband; marriage meant death either from his dissatisfaction (think of her father Henry VIII beheading two wives), or death in childbirth which killed many women. She would have none of it and used her brains and wiles to escape it. It was said of her that "Only her heart fluttered, not her head."
The public history of her reign is well-chronicled and many letters and state documents survive.
The private history is hidden, her personal letters to Sweet Robin destroyed in the English Civil War. We know little of what Elizabeth thought, what was in her heart and how she really felt about the major events and traumas of her life, or how they affected her.
That is where a novelist can help to fill in the gaps with what we know of a woman's responses to life. We can imagine her emotions through the eyes of others, her ladies-in-waiting, for example, as I do in The Virgin's Daughters: In the Court of Elizabeth I, coming in August 2009.
We can also come to know her through her long love and her heart's reaction to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Look for this story in my next novel of Elizabeth and her Sweet Robin, His Last Letter, Elizabeth I and the Earl of Leicester to be published in August 2010.
Elizabeth appears again in my next book The Spymaster's Daughter set in 1585-1588 the years when Sir Francis Walsingham and his network of Intelligencers slowly intercept incriminating coded messages from Mary, Queen of Scots. One of the queen's ladies is Walsingham's daughter, Lady Frances Sidney...who wants to be a spy despite her father's disapproval. Publication date for this book is August, 2012.
This review is from: Lady Merry's Dashing Champion (Signet Eclipse) (Paperback)
I bought this book online and now wish that I had not spent the money.
The problem isn't with the characters or with the adventure. They were enjoyable.
No. It's with the misrepresentation of the English legal system in Chapter 23. Westin writes: "There would be no acceptance in all the land of a marriage between low commoner and peer of the realm, with a title as ancient as any in england. All their children would be counted base-born bastards."
That simply is not true. If the Earl of Warborough married Meriel St. Thomas, their children would be legitimate under the English common law, not base-born bastards. Since the inheritance of English titles depended on the father, their sons would have been entitled to inherit both the title and the lands.
English common law did not have the provision that existed in the German principalities of the time that the husband and wife had to be of equal rank for the children to inherit. It simply did not. The marriage might have brought social ostracism (though it was much less likely to in the 17th century than in the 19th century), but it would not have been illegal in any way. It is not difficult to discover this. The author did not need this element and it destroys the whole book.
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This review is from: Lady Merry's Dashing Champion (Signet Eclipse) (Paperback)
In 1667, the Cheatham family visits Whitehall Palace along with the servants. Meriel St. Thomas works as a maid to Lady Judith Cheatham so is at the palace when the King's spymaster William Chiffinch mistakes her for Lady Felice, wife of the Earl of Warborough and a traitor to England; Felice has abetted England's adversary the Dutch.
Once he realizes his mistake, William drafts Merry to pose as Felice so that the English can pass false messages through her to the Dutch. Felicity's spouse Giles Harringdon feels like an idiot as he finds himself still desiring his seditious wife; not understanding she is actually Merry. Finally needing to be alone with her, he abducts his spouse. Merry falls in love with Giles and he reciprocates until he learns the truth; but with London in danger there is no time to explore their feelings.
This is an exhilarating seventeenth century espionage romance that uses real persona and events to anchor the period, but belongs to the lead pair. Merry is a terrific protagonist who perhaps too easily converts from serving to being served. However, it is Giles who is the more fascinating character as he feels like the world's biggest fool for falling in love with his traitorous wife a second time. Fans will enjoy this action-packed historical tale that never slows down from the moment William assumes that Merry is Felice on a tryst until the final confrontation with London at stake.
Harriet Klausner
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This review is from: Lady Merry's Dashing Champion (Signet Eclipse) (Paperback)
Westin is like Rice a bit in that while reading her book you feel a part of the time period. It feels she's really done her research - while giving you some fantastical kicks.
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