The Faithful Lovers (Bridges Over Time) - Softcover

Anand, Valerie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 074724409X ISBN 13: 9780747244097

Publisher: Headline, 1994

Synopsis

I want a quiet life from now on. And I don't want to fall in love.... I think I shall do better to stay away from affairs of the heart. One can be so hurt. I don't want to go through that again. Ninian Whitmead, almost forty years old, has already loved deeply, then lost once in his life. He has resigned himself to life alone on his seaside Cornish estate, Polmawgan House, without wife or family. But he is not prepared for the ship­wreck of a Courteen pirate ship off the coast of Cornwall that leaves Parvati, a young Indian girl, stranded in a foreign land as its only survivor. At first out of charity, then out of growing affection, Ninian takes the lost girl into his home, and when his attachment deepens to love, he marries her and they have a son. Though Parvati adopts a Christian name and is baptized into the Anglican church, their solemn Puritan community finds her foreign blood and unfamiliar customs unacceptable. As the stirrings of Civil War in England increase, tragedy seems imminent. Anand's fourth radiant installment in The Bridge Over Time series follows the Whitmead family through the political and religious tumult of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. “Valerie Anand has been building a remarkable body of work, a series of historical novels that have recreated England’s history both accurately and vividly.”—The Anniston Star

About this title

About the Author:

Valerie Anand (aka Fiona Buckley) is a British author of historical fiction. Under the pen name Fiona Buckley she writes the series of historical mysteries, set in the reign of Elizabeth I of England, featuring "Ursula Blanchard" (whose full name is Ursula Faldene Blanchard de la Roche Stannard). Under her own name she writes historical fiction based on the royalty of England and the Bridges over Time series which follows a family from the eleventh century through the nineteenth century.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Lovers, marriages, and high hopes are blasted by thunderous historic events in this fourth novel of the ``Bridges Over Time'' series (after Women of Ashdon, 1993). The English civil war and its aftermath form the backdrop for Anand's tale of doomed, sad, and betrayed lovers, brave souls scurrying or galloping ahead of murdering pursuers, and survivors of plague, fire, and mindless persecutions. The beautiful Indian girl Parvati (renamed a chaste ``Penelope''), slave to the captain of a privateer, had (literally) been swept into the arms of 40ish bachelor Ninian Whitmead, who rescued her from shipwreck on Cornwall's shores. The nearly drowned waif brings joy and passion to nice, drab Ninian, and he marries her. Ninian, a mild royalist, tries subterfuge and a somber Puritan visage to protect himself and his wife, but fanatic religious fervor, cresting as King Charles is executed, will take away his friends, his safety--and his beloved Parvati, denounced as a witch. In 1664, their son Charles, a handsome, amoral scoundrel, impregnates and is forced to marry gentle Louisa, while spending more of his amorous time with Christabella, whom he'll marry after Louisa's forlorn death. In her short life Louisa had not only discovered the possibilities of intellectual adventures, but with Ninian, been introduced to a long estranged branch of the Whitmeads in Essex. Louisa's daughter Henrietta will find love with Benjamin, an Essex cousin, but father Charles and Benjamin's sire, driven by religious scruples (there was that heathen grandmother!) and plain greed (Charles had found Henrietta an ancient, rich husband) lie and betray to prevent a marriage. Henrietta dedicates herself to another lifelong commitment--to a woman. Throughout the chases, clashes, doings in high places, and appealing views of country life, brave women search for freedom. Like the others in the series, a Christopher Hibbert-style dynasty drama with reliable historical special effects. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 074724409X
• ISBN 13: 9780747244097
• Binding: Paperback