AMAZON
Reviews: This book hit all the happy places for me: great characters, a touch of intrigue, family, the royals and even a villainous suitor! Gaele.
Will Sibella forget this man who gave her this sweet kiss? Will she choose the man of her life by listening to her heart or her reason? All these questions will be answered when you read this novel. Ms. Andersen's style of writing kept my interest throughout the whole book. I recommend this novel.
Nicole Laverdure
BLURB: John Haldane, Earl of Strathairn, is on an urgent mission to find the killer of his fellow spy. Has the treasonous Frenchman, Count Forney, returned to England to wreak havoc? Or has someone new landed on English shores to stir up rebellion in the Midlands? After visiting the young widow of one of his agents, Strathairn strengthens his resolve. A spy should never marry. And most certainly not to Lady Sibella Winborne, with her romantic ideas of love and marriage. Unable to give Sibella up entirely, he has kept her close as a friend. And then weak fool that he is he kissed her... Lady Sibella Winborne has refused several offers of marriage since her first Season years ago -- when she first set eyes on the handsome Earl of Strathairn. Sibella's many siblings always rush to her aid to discourage an ardent suitor, but not this time. Her elder brother, Chaloner, Marquess of Brandreth, has approved Lord Coombe's suit. Sibella yearns to set up her own household. She is known to be the sensible member of the family. But she doesn't feel at all sensible about Lord Strathairn. If only she could forget that kiss...
Excerpt:
Linden Hall Yorkshire, 1818
“I trust we’ll bag a few birds on the moor tomorrow,
Chaloner.” John Haldane, the 4th Earl of Strathairn, glanced at the guests
enjoying the Hunt Ball in his ballroom. Bright chatter rose in the warm smoky
air as decorative ladies mingled with the more soberly dressed gentlemen. “My chef
plans a grouse dish flavored with juniper berries for our dinner.”
“Excellent.” The Marquess of Brandreth raised his glass.
“We will be out at the crack of dawn, I daresay.” He took Strathairn’s arm and
drew him into a quiet corner. “I don’t wish to strain a friendship I value,
John, but I must offer a word of advice.”
“Oh?” Strathairn eyed him warily. He had liked Chaloner
better before his father died. The man seemed to lose his sense of humor after
inheriting the title.
“You are often seen in Sibella’s company. Don’t get too
fond of her.”
Strathairn moved his shoulders in a shrug of anger. He
glanced over at Sibella in her white muslin, talking earnestly to Mrs.
Bickerstaff. “Your sister is intelligent and good company. I enjoy our
conversations. Nothing strange about that.”
“I struggle to believe it is just that. I may not be
privy to the details of the work you perform for the military, but rumors do
float about the House of Lords. You must admit that due to those circumstances
alone, you would not make her a good husband.”
Chaloner’s determination put him in mind of a robin with
a worm. Useless to argue. With a sigh, Strathairn acknowledged that he only
strove to protect his sister from possible hurt. “No need for concern,” he
said. “I have no wish to marry your sister, or anyone else for that matter. I
do intend to ask Lady Sibella to dance, though. Unless you think my waltzing
with her will ruin her reputation.”
Chaloner huffed out a laugh and rubbed the back of his
neck. “Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t enjoy having to say this to you, John, but
it befalls me as head of the family. Sib has a love of home and hearth. She
looks for a husband who will sit by the fire with her at night. That isn’t you,
is it?”
“She deserves the best, and no, it isn’t me, Chaloner.”
After a fruitful day in the
fields shooting grouse, Strathairn and his guests made their way over the lawns
to the Hall.
The gamekeeper, beaters and handlers departed for the
stables with the hounds while servants came to take the birds to the kitchen.
On the terrace, Lady Sibella, in a gown the color of
lilacs, sat playing cards and drinking tea with the other women in the late
afternoon sun.
Strathairn mounted the steps, carrying his shotgun over
his shoulder, intent on returning it to the gunroom. “I trust you ladies
enjoyed your day?”
“We did, my lord.” Lady Sibella’s sister, Viscountess
Bathe, smiled. “Or at least those of us who have not lost our pin money at
whist.”
“I see you had a successful day, my lord.” Lady Sibella
eyed his gun with a faint shudder. “I
saw your kill on its way to the kitchens.”
He smiled. “I hope you’ll enjoy our efforts once served
in a tasty sauce.”
“I expect I shall. It’s contrary of me, isn’t it?” Lady
Sibella frowned up at him. “But please don’t suggest that all women are so.”
He eyed the expectant faces of the other ladies and held
up his hands with a laugh. “I wouldn’t be so bold.”
“Perhaps you would like a cup of tea, Lord Strathairn.”
Lady Sibella gestured to the teapot a servant was refilling with hot water.
“You must be thirsty after your arduous day.”
She well knew how much he hated tea, for he’d been forced
to drink it at a morning call at their house in Eaton Place. She had naughtily
offered to pour it into a potted plant when her mother was distracted by
another guest.
Her playful smile was delicious, and he couldn’t help
grinning back. Aware of the sharp-eyes on him from around the table, he shook
his head. “I’m afraid I must decline for I’m not fit for company. But, thank
you.” He bowed and entered the house leaving them to resume their card game.
Strathairn cleaned his gun and left it on the rack in the
gunroom. He’d enjoyed Lady Sibella’s friendship like no other lady of his
acquaintance. Her humor seemed so in tune with his and he often found she
understood his thoughts before he expressed them. Damn Chaloner, he was such a
stickler for convention.
My book is set in 1819 during a period of great unrest in England. The result of the unpopular Corn Laws brought people together in St. Peter's Field. A riot ensued. Named for Wellington's Waterloo, the Peterloo Massacre shocked England and the government during . Here's more about it:
St Peter's FieldAfter the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th Century, Manchester began expanding at an astonishing rate in the 19th Century as part of a process of unplanned urbanization. In August 1819 on a cloudless, hot summer’s day, a peaceable crowd of some 60,000 to 80,000 people gathered in St Peter’s Field (an open piece of cleared land alongside Mount Street) to hear orator, Henry Hunt speak and to demand reform of parliamentary representation. What happened next was as unnecessary as it was shocking. Cavalry charged into the crowd with sabres drawn, and in the ensuring confusion, 15 people were killed and between 400 and 700 injured.
In March 1819, Joseph
Johnson, John Knight and James Wroe formed the Manchester Patriotic Union
Society. All the leading radicals in Manchester joined the organisation.
Johnson was appointed secretary and Wroe became treasurer.
The local magistrates were concerned that such a substantial gathering of reformers might end in a riot. The magistrates therefore decided to arrange for a large number of soldiers to be in Manchester on the day of the meeting. This included four squadrons of cavalry of the 15th Hussars (600 men), several hundred infantrymen, the Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry (400 men), a detachment of the Royal Horse Artillery and two six-pounder guns and the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry (120 men) and all Manchester's special constables (400 men).
At about 11.00 a.m. William Hulton, the chairman, and nine other magistrates
met at Mr. Buxton's house in Mount Street that overlooked St. Peter's Field.
Although there was no trouble, the magistrates became concerned by the growing
size of the crowd. Estimations concerning the size of the crowd vary but Hulton
came to the conclusion that there were at least 50,000 people in St. Peter's
Field at midday. Hulton, therefore, took the decision to send Edward Clayton,
the Boroughreeve and the special constables to clear a path through the crowd.
The 400 special constables were therefore ordered to form two continuous lines
between the hustings where the speeches were to take place, and Mr. Buxton's
house where the magistrates were staying.
The local magistrates were concerned that such a substantial gathering of reformers might end in a riot. The magistrates therefore decided to arrange for a large number of soldiers to be in Manchester on the day of the meeting. This included four squadrons of cavalry of the 15th Hussars (600 men), several hundred infantrymen, the Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry (400 men), a detachment of the Royal Horse Artillery and two six-pounder guns and the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry (120 men) and all Manchester's special constables (400 men).
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| Map of the Peterloo Massacre |
Shortly after the meeting began, local magistrates called on
the military to arrest well-known radical orator, Henry Hunt who was asked to
chair the meeting, and several others on the hustings with him, and to disperse
the crowd. Arrested along with Hunt for inciting a riot and imprisoned was
Samuel Bamford, who led a group from his native Middleton to St. Peter’s Field.
Bamford emerged as a prominent voice for radical reform.
Hunt became MP for Preston 1830-33.
To understand what happened in Manchester one must
look at the period of economic upheaval between 1783 to 1846, when Britain
shifted from being a predominantly agricultural and commercial society to being
the world’s first industrial nation. Many of the most contentious political
issues of the day, corn and currency laws for example, were really questions of
whether government policy should be directed towards encouraging this shift, or
trying to reverse it.
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| Original blue plaque replaced in 2007 |
Accompanying
the economic changes was the most sustained and dangerous cycle of revolutionary
discontent and working-class protest in British history. This prompted a few
political concessions on the part of the governing aristocracy, but more
significant was the emergence of governmental machinery designed to maintain
law and order, which in turn led unintentionally to the foundation of the
modern centralized and bureaucratic state.
The power of the Crown declined significantly.
Although George III (until he became incurably mad in 1810) George IV, William
IV, Victoria, and her consort Albert, could all influence the course of
political intrigue, the monarch’s power to control the policies of the state
was severely reduced.
As the scope and scale of government business
increased during the long French wars, less and less passed through the
monarch’s hands. Except possibly where foreign policy was concerned, the Crown
was being reduced to little more than a figurehead of state. Effective power
remained in the hands of a territorial aristocracy, whose representatives still
dominated both Houses of Parliament. They faced an active and vociferous
radical movement, particularly strong in 1792 and in the economically depressed
years after the end of the war in 1815, when a period of famine and chronic
unemployment came into being, exacerbated by the introduction of the first of
the Corn Laws.
Postwar adjustment brought depression, with agrarian
disturbances, machine-breaking and revival of popular reform agitation. Two
meets at Spa Fields 1816 and an attack on the Prince Regent led to suspension of
Habeas Corpus and restrictions on public meetings.
Historian, Robert Poole has called the
Peterloo Massacre in Manchester one of the defining moments of its age. It left
an enormous psychological scar on a polity which prided itself on its ability
to contain discontents. Yet the aristocracy survived, largely because the
middling ranks, terrified by the violence of the French Revolution, rejected
any sort of revolutionary radicalism.
The Peterloo Massacre called on the Government in
1819 to pass what is known as the Six Acts which forbade training in arms and
drilling, authorized seizure of arms, simplified prosecutions, forbade
seditious assemblies, punished blasphemous libels and restricted the press.
Resource: The Cambridge Historical Encyclopedia of
Great Britain and Ireland.
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