Plaidy, Jean - Royal Sisters - The Story of the Daughters of James II

“Your relative, Barbara Villiers—my lady Castlemaine as she became—put honors in your family’s way because she was an expert performer in the King’s bedchamber. We had no such ladies in our family.”

“Your husband I believe did very well out of his relationship with my lady Castlemaine. She paid him for his services to her … in the bedchamber. Was it five thousand pounds with which he bought an annuity? You must find that very useful now that my lord Marlborough is out of favor and has no office at the Court.”

If there was one person in the world whom Sarah truly loved it was her husband, John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough; and although he had had a reputation as a rake before their marriage, he had, she was certain, remained absolutely faithful to her since. This reference to past indiscretions aroused her fury.

She slapped Barbara Fitzharding’s face.

Barbara, taken aback, stared at her, lifted her hand to retaliate and then remembered that there must be no brawling between women in positions such as theirs.

But her anger matched Sarah’s.

“I’m not surprised at your mode of behavior,” she said. “It is hardly to be wondered at. And besides being arrogant and ill-mannered you are also cruel. I should be ashamed, not to have poor relations, but to turn my back on them while they starve.”

“What nonsense is this?”

“It is no nonsense. I heard only the other day the distressing story of the Hill family. I was interested … and so was my informant … because of their connection with the high and mighty Lady Marlborough! Your uncle, aunt, and cousins … dying of starvation! Two girls working as servants, I hear, two boys running about the streets, ragged and hungry.”

“A pitiable story and one which does credit to your imagination, Lady Fitzharding.”

“A pitiable story, Lady Marlborough, but it owes nothing to my imagination. Go and see for yourself. And let me tell you this, that I shall not feel it my duty to keep silent about this most shameful matter.”

Sarah for once was speechless, and when Lady Fitzharding flounced out of the room she stared after her, murmuring: “Hill! Hill!” The name was familiar. Her grandfather Sir John Jennings, she had heard her own father say, had had twenty-two children and one of these, Mary, had married a Francis Hill who was a merchant of London.

Sarah had heard nothing of him since. One did not need to keep in touch with one’s merchant connections—except of course when they were likely to bring disrepute.

Sarah made one of her prompt decisions.

Something must be done about the Hills.

Read all of Jean Plaidy’s

Novels of the Stuarts

in historical order:

1. The Royal Road to Fotheringhay

The Story of Mary Queen of Scots

$15.00 PAPERBACK

978-0-609-81023-1

2. The Captive Queen of Scots

The Story of Queen Mary

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978-1-4000-8251-3

3. The Murder in the Tower

The Story of Frances,

Countess of Essex

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978-0-307-34621-6

4. The Loves of Charles II

The Stuart Saga

$16.00 PAPERBACK

978-1-4000-8248-3

previously published as

three separate volumes:

The Wandering Prince

Health Unto His Majesty

Here Lies Our Sovereign Lord

5. The Three Crowns

The Story of William and Mary

$14.00 PAPERBACK

978-0-307-34624-7

6. Royal Sisters

The Story of the

Daughters of James II

$15.00 PAPERBACK

978-0-307-71952-2

previously published

as The Haunted Sisters

7. Courting Her Highness

The Story of Queen Anne

$16.00 PAPERBACK

978-0-307-71951-5

previously published as

The Queen’s Favourites

COMING SUMMER 2011!

Available wherever books are sold

Read all of Jean Plaidy’s

Novels of the Tudors

in historical order:

1. To Hold the Crown

The Story of King Henry VII

and Elizabeth of York

$14.95 PAPERBACK

978-0-307-34619-3

2. Katharine of Aragon

The Story of a Spanish Princess and an English Queen

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978-0-609-81025-5

3. Murder Most Royal

The Story of Anne Boleyn

and Catherine Howard

$14.95 PAPERBACK

978-1-4000-8249-0

4 The King’s Confidante

The Story of the Daughter of Sir Thomas More

$13.95 PAPERBACK

978-0-307-34620-9

previously published as

St. Thomas’s Eve

5. The Sixth Wife

The Story of Katherine Parr

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978-0-609-81026-2

6. The Thistle and the Rose

The Story of Margaret, Princess

of England, Queen of Scotland

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978-0-609-81022-4

7. Mary, Queen of France

The Story of the Youngest Sister of Henry VIII

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978-0-609-81021-7