Heartsease

'I can't cry for you, Henry, and I can't ever forgive you. Your demise is my release.' She removed her wedding ring and tossed it into the grave. It spun on the coffin, and then rolled from the closed lid to fall into soil.

At only 16, Mary Hawke is married to the handsome Henry Crawford and goes to live with him in his Essex home. But her husband is a vicious brute who sees his innocent young wife as his property, to beat and abuse at his will. The appearance of a debonair Spaniard, old enough to be Mary's father, awakens within her a passionate nature.

A sudden twist of fate releases Mary from her violent marriage and she arrives at court as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Catharine of Aragon. There, she befriends the young and vivacious Anne Boleyn. The handsome Spaniard re-enters her life, and Mary finds herself moving to an opulent life in Spain as his wife.

But life in Spain is dangerous and her new husband has a secret past. Arriving back in England, Mary returns to the court of King Henry VIII as Anne Boleyn's star is rising. While living there, she encounters Gregory, a reclusive lawyer. Together they witness, and are involved in, some of Tudor history's greatest moments. The books thrilling climax involves Mary's brother Robert and a dangerous obsession that threatens to tear her family apart. The Tower waits silently for its next victim...

"My inspiration for Heartsease came from historical dramas and fiction. I have had an obsession to write since before my children were born and have always written short stories. The original concept of a young woman observing history in the making began over 30 years ago; it evolved from a short story in an exercise book," says author Ann.