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The Temptation of Torilla

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The Marquis of Havingham visits his mother in Harrogate to tell her he intends to marry Lady Beryl Fern, the most acclaimed beauty in the Prince Regent’s circle. This should be the happiest day of his life – he is handsome, fabulously wealthy and now about to be a bridegroom. There is only one cloud on the horizon – he is not in love.

Convinced that true love is not worth the heartache, and that marriage to the ‘Incomparable’ Lady Beryl, will work because of their shared interests and position amongst the Beau Monde, only his mother is worried that he may be making a terrible mistake.

For Torilla, the daughter of a clergyman working in the deprived mining village of Barrowfield, the news of the wedding means travelling South to be her cousin, Lady Beryl’s, bridesmaid. Torilla is excited, not only about the wedding, but also the opportunity to return to the genteel parish she and her father left after the tragic death of her mother. For a young woman who has spent time amongst the grime and squalor of the mines, the lavish preparations and generosity of her cousin seem at times almost overwhelming.

But as the wedding draws ever nearer Torilla cannot help wondering how attached the betrothed couple really are to each other. Their relationship is certainly nothing like the perfect soul mates that the cousins used to dream of. Afraid to question her cousin, Torilla unknowingly shares the same concerns as the Marquis’ mother. Can a marriage really work that is based only on convenience?

And as Torilla gets to know the Marquis better she becomes even more convinced that this is not a match made in heaven. But will anyone be brave enough to say something? With her feelings in turmoil and filled with concern for the future happiness of all, Torilla certainly hopes so.

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AUTHOR’S NOTE
AUTHOR’S NOTEIt was not until 1842 that the first report by the Children’s Employment Commission awoke the conscience of the country. The descriptions of the conditions in the British coalmines described in this novel are all taken from that report. Safety devices were slow in being introduced. The John Buddles Air Pump in 1807 was the first, the Davy lamp in 1816, then John Martin’s Air Lock and Fan, which was not in use until 1835. What struck the moral minded Victorians, even more than the ever-present danger of explosions, was that girls and boys were employed together. Naked to the waist with chains between their legs, the future mothers of Englishmen crawled on all fours down tunnels under the earth drawing gigantic burdens. Women by the age of thirty were often old and infirm cripples, worn out by the harsh conditions as well as the exhausting regime of bringing up large families on very low incomes. Such labour was often accompanied by debauchery and terrible cruelty. When, a month after the report, Lord Ashley introduced a Bill to exclude all women and girls from the pits, as well as boys under thirteen, he was acclaimed a national hero.

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