P R E S S    R E L E A S E

“No doubt about it,” says Rosy, “Mary was endowed with a natural charisma that won the hearts of almost everyone she met, male and female alike, and seems to have stalled the advances of a constellation of distinguished gentlemen.”

For twelve long years, the heroine of this true tale was as good as held captive in Berkeley Castle to his lordship’s whims. Dismayed at finding herself cheated into fake matrimony, she set about putting the neglected Berkeley estates on a viable footing in hopes of providing for their string of illegitimate children and demonstrated that she possessed a rapier wit. “Her courage was astonishing,” Rosy reflects. “In all, she gave birth to thirteen children, ten of whom lived many decades. In those days, any self-respecting girl considered herself branded for life if she was known to have ‘fallen’. Women were either workhorses or ornaments, with no rights. They could be sold in the marketplace, or legally beaten with sticks by their spouses. They seldom owned property, certainly not if they took husbands. The bias of the law fostered the ‘mean and keen’ approach of their menfolk.”

Frederick Augustus, 5^th Earl of Berkeley, did not ill-treat his partner, however, and their relationship, though unequal on many levels, was as delicate as it was fascinating and the cause of widespread speculation. Mary seemed to invoke his nobler instincts.

Meanwhile, her sisters, Susan and Ann, had chosen to pursue colourful careers in government circles. This proved a fertile ground for blackmail and set Berkeley’s nerves on edge until the intervention of his confidant, the Prince of Wales, later Regent and George IV, put paid to their capers and was a strong factor in the couple’s decision to cement the bond.

It was then that a sinister hand took control of their destiny. How was their eldest son, William Fitzhardinge Berkeley, to be united with his rightful inheritance?

The 1799 Inquiry into the Pedigree of the Berkeley Peerage was a severe test of conjugal harmony. Soon afterwards, Mary was launched upon the Polite World at a ball held in Arundel Castle to mark Edward Jenner’s achievements. It was there that Berkeley’s worst fears were realised when one menacing and very powerful suitor sought his wife’s favours which left the pair reeling on a cliff of suspense.

The Wolf and The Lamb is published by New Eve Publishing at £9.95. Available at online or through any good bookshop. (ISBN 978-0-9556877-1-6.) For details of this and other books in print by the author visit http://www.pilgrimrose.com and http://www.redroom.com/author/rosy-cole for other writing.