The Viscount's Birthright — Margaret Brazear

HOLY POISON A series of historical romances which tell the stories of the ordinary people who lived through the turbulent and brutal reign of Bloody Mary. When Viscount Robert's estranged father, the Earl of Roxham, dies, he returns home, eager to wed Lady Camilla Austin and make her his Countess. But his plans are thwarted when he learns that his father had a young ward, Antonia, and his Will dictates that in order to inherit both the title and the estate, he must marry her. Angry and disappointed, he consults lawyers and learns that the Will is valid. The only way he will inherit is to marry where his father has stipulated so he prepares to give up thoughts of marriage to Lady Camilla and do just that. But he reckons without Antonia who is determined not to comply with her late guardian's wishes, declaring that she would rather find work in service than marry such a boorish and angry man. The love which develops between them is destroyed when Antonia realises she is being poisoned and believes Robert to be responsible so that he can marry Camilla. She runs away and finds work, but even though Camilla marries elsewhere, Antonia cannot accept that her illness was not Robert's doing. Unable to win back her trust, he decides to join the rebellion organised by Thomas Wyatt to stop Bloody Mary from marrying Prince Philip of Spain. The rebellion was intended to murder Mary and replace her with her sister, Elizabeth. Beginning at the end of the reign of King Edward VI, Henry VIII's only surviving son, this is a love story, a tale of how one self important man discovered the meaning of an honest woman and of his battle to keep her