I have a great passion for London and its magnificent noble houses, where I have met many gentlemen from Court circles. My ambition is set on making a good marriage, and I intend to have a great household of my own, where you can come to stay. I wish with all my heart that you could visit these grand places with me, to see the Tudor courtiers bedecked in velvets and jewels, to listen to the music as it floats down from the minstrels' galleries and be waited upon by the liveried footmen. For me, it is like a dream come true. I long to share with you all the wonders of this glorious city, and vow that someday I shall! Yours alone, Mistress Elizabeth Hardwick (Bess) From New York Times bestselling author Virginia Henley, whose novels have enchanted readers worldwide, comes a stunningly romantic new novel brimming with the sensual tension, humor, and narrative verve that have become her trademarks. Set amid the glittering, bawdy, and intrigue-riddled society of Elizabethan England and based on the real-life heroine Elizabeth Hardwick, A Woman of Passion tells the story of a beautiful, ambitious commoner who rises to the position of lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth I and loves four very different husbands along the way. Vowing to put poverty and powerlessness behind her, fifteen-year-old Bess Hardwick takes a suitable position at the London home of a wealthy noblewoman. There she is plunged into an exciting new world of riches and privilege, and makes the acquaintance of friends, potential enemies, and powerful men who will change the course of her life. Among them are Elizabeth, an uncommonly shrewd yet lonely princess who would become an indomitable queen; charming and dangerously seductive William Cavendish, the king's ambitious financial adviser, who is determined to have Bess at any cost save marriage; the adoring, tenderhearted Robert Barlow; the proper and dutiful aristocrat Sir William St. Loe; and George Talbot, the devilishly handsome heir to the earldom of Shrewsbury, whose wicked daring ignites in Bess the passion of a lifetime. With the fast-paced storytelling style, historical sweep, and insight into a woman's heart that have made her one of the most popular writers of historical romance, Virginia Henley takes readers on a breathless journey through the adventure-filled prime of life of A Woman of Passion . Best-selling romance writer Henley based this tale on the true story of Elizabeth Hardwick, a commoner who became lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth and married successfullyAfour times. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. "Bess has an overabundance of passion," says her mother, and for a poverty-stricken family in Tudor England, firebrand Elizabeth Hardwick is a trial. At the urging of her aunt, Bess journeys to London to become a companion to a noblewoman and her daughters. Through a fortuitous set of circumstances, and Bess' shrewd grasp of court politics, she meets a young woman who could be her twin: flame-haired Elizabeth Tudor, royal bastard of Henry VIII. As Bess marries and buries three husbands--one for the sake of her family, two for love, and all three at royal decree--her fortunes grow, and she becomes Lady of the Royal Bedchamber to the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I. But good fortune lasts only so long, and eventually her role as confidante to the queen makes her a potential threat to the stability of England. Basing her novel on a historical figure, Henley re-creates the licentiousness, greed, and gluttony of the Tudor court, and presents a heroine comfortable with her own highly erotic nature and force of will. A must for Henley fans. Melanie Duncan Henley's 16th dish of romance (A Year and a Day, 1998, etc.) tells of commoner Bess Hardwicks life from ages six to forty as she rises from poverty to become Queen Elizabeths lady-in-waiting and to make a spectacular marriage to the richest lord in England, all the while taking full advantage of the periods sexy freedoms. Henley's faithful know what to expect: rapid storytelling, high passions, rich description, and no stinting on bedtime thrills. On Bess's deflowering by William Cavendish (`` `Oh my God, she murmured with breathless admiration . . . You look like your stallion.' `That's exactly how I feelrampant!') or to her initiation into the enwilding joys of cunnilingus with the devilishly besotted Shrewsbury (``Her laugh was sultry. She knew he was mad in love with her and ready to give her the moon and the stars''). Bess Hardwick, the publisher tells us, is based on a real-life figure who indeed rose to towering prominence as a descendant of the Plantagenets, whose blood was more royal than the Tudors and whose temper was just as fearsome: `' `You aren't just a devil,' she panted furiously, `you are Lucifer himself!'' Written in reckless, slamming prose that mirrors its redheaded heroines blazing tantrums. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "Rapid storytelling, high passi