Mary Cole, a butcher’s daughter from Gloucester, is ignorant of the ways of the world. In a time when men of the aristocracy had “official” mistresses, the unscrupulous wandered the country abducting women without penalty. Mary is soon spotted by the Earl of Berkeley, a blackguard and womanizer, who decides that he must possess her. Through tricks and corrupt dealings, including the betrayal of Mary by her sisters, he abducts her, and she becomes his mistress...
...Cole’s talent shines brightest in the scenes between Mary and her mother, revealing the pain of Mary’s shame and her mother’s inability to understand Mary’s determination to remain in the Berkeley household. Equally impressive is Cole’s attempt to unravel the tangled web of the families and loyalties of the peers.
This novel will be enjoyed by anyone interested in the position of women and political turbulence in England at the end of the eighteenth century.