The Thornless Rose (44 page)
Read The Thornless Rose Online
Authors: Morgan O'Neill
Tags: #Fiction, #Time Travel, #Historical, #General, #Rose, #Elizabethan, #Romance, #Suspense, #Entangled, #Time, #Thornless, #Select Suspense, #Travel
Authors’ Note
Queen Elizabeth I, our golden lioness. She was a wonder of her age and, to paraphrase our novel, a woman who “well discharged the duties of a man.” But who was she, really? Is there any way of knowing her innermost thoughts and deepest desires?
Of course not, because she left no diary, or secret letters. Perhaps, this is why she is so appealing to novelists, who attempt to delve into her heart, twining their visions of her life with what they believe to be true, or need for the sake of their stories.
Specifically, did the so-called Virgin Queen have lovers? Was she ever pregnant? There certainly was much speculation during her lifetime, and today those issues are still hotly debated. Even we started out divided on the subject: Cary’s now crumbling belief was that Elizabeth was very sexual, but would never have gone so far as to consummate her many infatuations, since fear of pregnancy and the loss of her crown would always be more important concerns than a fleeting, physical act; Deborah, on the other hand, was convinced from the start this woman of the world did not hesitate to taste what for her was deemed forbidden fruit, the consequences be damned.
The hints certainly lead in the direction we’ve taken our story. Courtiers and foreigners alike commented, gossiped, and worried over Elizabeth’s intimacy with Robert Dudley, who by early 1561 occupied an apartment adjoining the queen’s at Whitehall Palace, an arrangement which was to be duplicated in every other royal residence. As Historian Carolly Erickson noted in
The First Elizabeth
, the ambassador of Venice observed, “My Lord Robert Dudley is...very intimate with Her Majesty.” And Philip II of Spain was informed by the Count de Feria, “Lord Robert has come so much into favor that he does whatever he likes with his affairs and it is even said that Her Majesty visits him in his chamber day and night.”
Elizabeth, for her part, seemed to delight in flaunting her relationship with Dudley, fondling him before the royal court and telling the Spanish ambassador, De Quadra, that she was “no angel.”
Soon afterward, rumors regarding Elizabeth’s health merged with the scandal. Some said dropsy caused periodic swellings in her body; others were convinced she’d been impregnated by Dudley, perhaps multiple times. After one particularly alarming illness, Elizabeth was described by De Quadra as “extremely thin and the color of a corpse.” Lady Willoughby was quoted as saying the queen “looked like one lately come out of childbed.” Because of this, we believe our fictional plot twist regarding a doomed pregnancy makes sense, providing the rationale for Dr. Brandon’s pardon. It seems likely Elizabeth
could
have conceived a child by Robert Dudley. She did have recurring health problems early in her reign, and in our scenario Brandon is the only one with the knowledge to save her.
Even though Dudley would stray as the years went on—most notably in his affair with Lady Douglas Sheffield and culminating with his marriage to Lettice Knollys—Elizabeth’s feelings for him were deeply charged and unwavering to the end. According to the historian Susan Doran, he “remained at the centre of (the queen’s) emotional life.” After Elizabeth’s death on March 24, 1603, a final note from Dudley was found among her most personal possessions. He had written it a few weeks before his death in 1588. The queen had kept it by her bedside for over fourteen years.
Another of our plot twists concerns the mysterious death of Robert Dudley’s first wife, Amy Robsart. The argument continues to this day as to whether it was suicide, accident, or murder. Those who claim suicide or murder point out, rightly, that Dudley and the queen were certainly guilty of causing Amy both grief and humiliation. Those who lean toward an accidental death point to her weakened state due to advanced breast cancer. They argue the queen and Dudley would not have concocted such a dangerous plan if Amy had been known to be mortally ill.
Our version of the events leading up to and culminating with Amy Dudley’s tragic end gives plausible and tantalizing answers to the mystery. After all, Norfolk did indeed resent both Elizabeth and Dudley, and, later in life, he and Rodrigo Lopez were each charged with treason and executed for some of the very shenanigans we put them up to in our book.
As to our paranormal incidences, they do derive from legends, as well as documented first-hand accounts. These include Bishop Wulfstan’s miracle, the irate monk in Westminster Abbey, and the various ghostly sightings and unexplained disappearances in and around London. And, although our pub, The Bishop’s Crook, is based on an actual establishment, its time travel “portal” is wholly the result of our imaginings, derived from the fact we’ve always wished there was a way to visit this era.
Since writing is
our
portal to the past, and because of our love of history, we depict events and people as accurately as possible, within the dictates of a time travel story. We’ve invented certain details, such as Major Brandon’s RAF ID number, using an actual “not allotted” military number to avoid inadvertently giving our hero the ID of an actual veteran. We’ve also taken some liberties with the language of the Elizabethans, so that modern readers can understand the dialogue and avoid confusion. And to clarify for our readers, we would like to note that thee, thou, thy, and thine were used in the singular, while ye, you, and yours were plural.
We’ve also created vibrant fictional persons, such as Catherine Hastings Howard, Trudy Leach, Geoff Bly, Bishop Wright, Alice Potter, Robert Hope, Brother Daniel, and our two delightfully awful thugs, Will and Jack. Furthermore, most historians agree Amy and Robert Dudley never had a child together, but we chose to give Amy something to hope for in death: reunification with her beloved Robbie.
And, of course, our heroine and hero, Anne Howard and Dr. Jonathan Brandon, are fictional characters as well, yet timeless as symbols of unflawed love, like the beautiful thornless rose
About the Author
Two authors writing as one, Cary Morgan Frates and Deborah O’Neill Cordes specialize in recreating pivotal moments in history, epic adventure, and romance – with a time travel twist.Morgan O’Neill’s Elizabethan time travel series has received several literary awards, including a first place win in the Golden Rose Contest, a top ten finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Conference Zola Awards Literary Contest, and a semifinalist award in the prestigious William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition.
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