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The Wicked Widow

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Blurb

Since their adored father, Lord Shenley, passed away, the beautiful young Kyla Shenley and her little brother, Terry, have no one to care for them except for their despised stepmother, Sybil, who has already taken a lover and is plotting to get her greedy hands on the children’s large inheritance.

When Kyla overhears her plans to ensure that young Terry has a ‘fatal accident’ and to drug Kyla and hand her over to a ghastly old man called ‘Lord Frome’ to face a life of debauchery, she sees no alternative but for them both to flee as far away as possible from their appalling stepmother.

Heading for Lilliecote Castle and their beloved Nanny who works there for the Earl of Granston, they are accosted by a highwayman in a wood, but he turns out to be a particularly nice ‘gentleman of the road’, who demands only one of their sandwiches and even offers his protection should they find themselves in dire straits.

When they arrive at The Castle, Nanny suggests that the Master, the Earl of Granston, should not be aware of their identities in case their wicked stepmother comes there seeking them.

And, passing off Kyla as a new Governess to the Earl’s young niece, Jane, Nanny shows them how to hide in The Castle’s ancient secret passages and Priests’ Holes.

But, as the handsome and authoritative Earl takes them under his wing, he suspects that there is more to the lovely Kyla than meets the eye.

So eventually it is he, together with their highwayman friend, who defeats the Wicked Widow and her gang of evil accomplices in a terrifying battle in which the Earl wins Kyla’s heart and soul.

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Author’s Note
Author’s NoteMany Castles in England have secret passages, one reason being that if the owner had a mistress, he could go to her without being seen. Another was that at the time of King Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Monks could hide in them and not be slaughtered by the King’s men. It was because of Henry’s desire to be free of a barren wife that he turned against the Roman Catholic Church, having been refused permission to divorce and remarry so that he could produce an heir. This was a turning point in England as far as religion was concerned and resulted in the reigning Monarch becoming the Head of the Church of England. The highwayman of the eighteenth century became a romantic figure in a great many novels. Mounted usually on a fine horse, which could carry him away quickly from the scene of the crime, his dark clothes and his rakish appearance made him the ‘Gentleman of the Road’. There were, however, other highwaymen who were forced into obtaining enough money to live, simply because they had been so badly treated after the War with France was ended. Men who had fought valiantly for their country came home to find that there were no jobs for them to do, their wives had often died or run away with another man or their cottages were inhabited by someone else. There were no pensions for them, not even for those who were wounded. These men, like Bill in my story, were rough but not cruel nor were they in the same category as the romantic highwaymen written about by Alfred Noyes, “And he rode with a jewelled twinkle. His pistol butts a-twinkle. His rapier hilt a-twinkle. Under the jewelled sky.”

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