Headline, London, 1993, 1^st pr thus.  ISBN 0-7472-4025-6.  MMPB, 597 pages.  Good plus; wraps show edge and cover wear, corner and reading creases; binding sound.  Inked initials on first page; small stain in lower fore-edge margin of 3 pages; remainder of interior clean and unmarked with lightly tanned pages.  ‘When, at the age of nineteen, Susannah Whitmead is naïve enough to fall in love she is rapidly married off to a safe and suitable husband, Sir James Weston of the manor of Ashdon.’  She has also fallen in love with his house.  ‘When her husband is killed at the battle of Bosworth Field, Susannah, in order to keep Ashdon, remarries.  But Arthur Trefusis has one fatal flaw:  he cannot resist intrigue – in the turbulent reign of Henry VII a dangerous weakness that threatens to destroy all that is most precious to his wife.  But Ashdon survives, a fine inheritance for Susannah’s granddaughter Christina, who loves the house almost as much as she.  However in the perilous days of Elizabeth I to love something too dearly is unwise, as Christina Trefusis soon discovers…’ (from rear wrap)