The Heretics — Margaret Brazear

Trapped in a loveless marriage, Lady Julia Winterton turns to her handsome and wealthy neighbour, Lord Richard Summerville, for comfort. But before she can tell him their afternoon of passion has born fruit, she learns he has proposed marriage to her sister, Bethany (The Judas Pledge). When her cruel husband learns of her pregnancy, he threatens to smother her child at birth and Julia has no choice other than to flee. Taking all the money and jewels she can find, she escapes and arrives at a farm, where she meets Charles Carlisle. Although he is a humble farmer, she falls in love with him and when her husband comes looking for her, with a warrant for her arrest on the grounds of adultery and theft, the couple are forced to flee with her baby son. They find a manor house, Sinclair Manor (Betrayal), a house abandoned when the Sinclair family were all condemned and executed for heresy. As the brutal reign of Bloody Mary continues, the couple become central to the Protestant cause and put their lives in danger to help hundreds to escape to France. But will they survive to see the Protestant Elizabeth become Queen and turn the tide? Holy Poison is a series of novels telling the stories of the ordinary people who lived through the violent reign of Bloody Mary and her campaign to stamp out Protestantism and return England to the Church of Rome.