The world of 16th-century Spain is a place where the Inquisition holds sway and autos-da-fé (the public burning of heretics) happen rather often. Sister Ernestine is a bereaved widow who recently took the veil. After playing a part in her late husband’s downfall and execution, she tries to live a life of sincere repentance. As she comes to St. Francis Abbey, she seeks to give secret documents to her brother-in-law, who cannot be found.
Forest of Secrets
Set in 1586, Forest of Secrets is book 19 in the Ursula Blanchard mystery series. After returning home from a journey, Ursula is approached by Etheldreda Hope, a woman dressed in simple clothing. When Etheldreda regales Ursula with strange tales coming from her village of Chenston, she does not know what to make of it. With whispers about Mary, Queen of Scots, Sir Francis Walsingham sends Ursula to Chenston in order to investigate the village. While there, she finds a group of people who still follow the old pagan ways. Do these people pose a threat to Queen Elizabeth? Only time will tell.
Dark Lady
It is the height of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, a celebrated golden age. The seven-year-old Emilia Bassano is sent away from her mother to be entrusted to the care of the Countess of Kent, where she will be raised with propriety. Not long after that day, Emilia blossoms into a young woman who is a lover to two men, one of whom is William Shakespeare, the Queen’s playwright and poet. In time, Emilia becomes a poetess herself, something that is unusual in the Elizabethan era. Suffice it to say, Emilia, being of questionable birth, is an oddity in her own time.
Katherine of Aragon, the True Queen
Catalina de Aragon is a fresh-faced, bright-eyed Spanish beauty who comes to the strange land of England to wed Arthur, Prince of Wales. The demure Spanish princess who thereafter is referred to as Katherine (in the English style) arrives in her new country amid great pomp and revelry. Surrounded perpetually by her cortege of Spanish ladies-in-waiting, Katherine is ruled by the iron fist of her imperious duenna, Doña Elvira. Katherine eventually meets with King Henry VII who is delighted by her as well as her betrothed, Arthur, although it is clear that the sickly young man’s attentions are lukewarm at best.
The Taming of the Queen
The thirty-one-year-old Kateryn Parr is recently the widow of John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer and she has come to the royal court. While there, she happens to catch the eye of the rather old and ailing corpulent King Henry VIII, who is determined to have her. When she is approached by the king with a proposal of marriage, Kateryn is very much taken aback and doesn’t really quite know what to say. Deep down, she is absolutely disgusted at the prospect of being the wife to such a man, a personage who has gone through five queens. After the king proposes, she smiles at him and requests that she has time to pray on the matter.
A Love Most Dangerous
The story begins at Hampton Court Palace, where the heroine Alice Petherton and her friends are all Maids of Honor to Jane Seymour, the current Queen of England. Alice begins: “My name is Alice Petherton and I am seventeen years of age. I came to Court as a simple servant but caught the eye of Anne Boleyn when she was newly crowned. I was good at singing, could dance like an elf, and made her laugh and think. She took me as one of her Maids of Honor and my slow approach to the furnace began.” The book begins with some rather arresting words from the protagonist which cannot help but draw the reader in.