Lady in Waiting - Softcover

Domning, Denise

3.84

843 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451407717 ISBN 13: 9780451407719

Publisher: Topaz, 1998

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Commanded by her grandfather to snare a wealthy husband, Anne Blanchemain enters the lavish court of Queen Elizabeth. But the beautiful, headstrong Anne is a lamb among wolves, easy prey to treachery and an aging queen's jealousy. She never suspects that handsome courtier Chirstopher Hollier has been sent to ruin her.

Christopher Hollier is the only man in Elizabeth's court uninterested in making a rich marriage--for himself. All that matters to Christopher is reclaiming the title Lord Graistan for his brother. If doing that requires him to destroy Anne, so be it...even if her destruction costs him his life.

But a tide of betrayal sweeps Anne and Christopher into a dangerous dance of plots to defy crown and country that could ultimately cost them their lives, and their love.

* Denise Domning has been nominated for the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award

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Review:

There's nothing like the court of Queen Elizabeth I for intrigue and suspense, and Denise Domning pulls out all the stops in this exciting historical. Anne Blanchmain has dedicated her life to caring for her ailing mother until her grandfather commands her to take a position in court as one of Queen Elizabeth's maids. The plan is to woo a wealthy husband, but Anne has a few secrets that may pose serious problems. For one, she is not an innocent. Handsome Christopher Hollier seems like the perfect savior, but unbeknownst to Anne he has been blackmailed into ruining the lovely young woman. The stakes are high in this game of life and death where passion reigns supreme, secrets abound, and in the end everyone must please the Virgin Queen.

From the Author:

I thought I'd take a moment to let you know how this book came to be. You see, when I was young I kept remembering living a life in the court of Elizabeth the First. Sounds weird I know, but when you're five, six and seven, and having these memories you don't really realize it's unusual. But here's the really strange part: as much as I identified with that time period, I didn't have any interest in studying it. I was far more interested in ancient Egypt. So as time passed I let go of Elizabeth and her court and moved on to other things, like jobs, marriages, kids...you know, things.

Then I finally took my first trip to England and stopped to tour St. Mary's in Warwick. (Warwick one of those places in England where they add extra letters to confuse Americans--it's "War-ick" not "War-wick"). I knew Robert Dudley, Elizabeth's favorite, was buried there but I was totally unprepared to come face-to-face with an effigy whose image I remembered seeing in all those weird memories from my childhood. I read her name in complete astonishment: Lettice Knowles, first the Viscountess of Hereford, then Robert Dudley's wife and finally the mother of the Earl of Essex, who would later become Elizabeth's ill-fated favorite.

Talk about being rocked off my feet in surprise! After that I guess it was just a matter of time (and book contracts) before I got around to writing a book set in this time period...and of course, I couldn't resist putting Lettice (myself?) in the background.

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