Mary & Elizabeth. Emily Purdy
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Mary & Elizabeth
Emily Purdy
Copyright
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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MARY & ELIZABETH. Copyright © Brandy Purdy 2011. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Brandy Purdy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Source ISBN: 9781847562371
Ebook Edition © September 2013 ISBN: 9781847562975
Version: 2019-05-10
Contents
Copyright
Prologue
The End of an Era
1
Mary
2
Elizabeth
3
Mary
4
Elizabeth
5
Mary
6
Elizabeth
7
Mary
8
Elizabeth
9
Mary
10
Elizabeth
11
Mary
12
Elizabeth
13
Mary
14
Elizabeth
15
Mary
16
Elizabeth
17
Mary
18
Elizabeth
19
Mary
20
Elizabeth
21
Mary
22
Elizabeth
23
Mary
24
Elizabeth
25
Mary
26
Elizabeth
27
Mary
28
Elizabeth
29
Mary
30
Elizabeth
31
Mary
32
Elizabeth
33
Mary
34
Elizabeth
35
Mary
36
Elizabeth
37
Mary
38
Elizabeth
39
Mary
40
Elizabeth
41
Mary
42
Elizabeth
43
Mary
44
Elizabeth
45
Mary
46
Elizabeth
47
Mary
48
Elizabeth
49
Mary
50
Elizabeth
51
Mary
52
Elizabeth
Postscript
A Reading Group Guide
Discussion Questions
About the Author
Other Books by the Same Author
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
The End of an Era
January 28, 1547
Whitehall Palace
Wonderful, dangerous, cruel, and wise, after thirty-eight years of ruling England, King Henry VIII lay dying. It was the end of an era. Many of his subjects had known no other king and feared the uncertainty that lay ahead when his nine-year-old son inherited the throne.
A cantankerous mountain of rotting flesh, already stinking of the grave, and looking far older than his fifty-five years, it was hard to believe the portrait on the wall, always praised as one of Master Holbein’s finest and a magnificent, vivid and vibrant likeness, that this reeking wreck had once been the handsomest prince in Christendom, standing with hands on hips and legs apart as if he meant to straddle the world.
The great gold-embroidered bed, reinforced to support his weight, creaked like a ship being tossed on angry