Lady Selby's Lover

THE NOBLEWOMAN AND THE IRISH PATRIOT

It was a titled British lady's perilous plan to disguise herself as a boy, to steal aboard a ship bound for the embattled shores of Ireland. From the moment orphaned Lady Alexandra Cummings arrived at besieged Inverary Castle, her life and her future were no longer her own. Captured by rugged Irish rebel Kevin Burke, the daring noblewoman became a pawn in a dangerous game of treachery, betrayal, and irresistible attraction.

She lost her heart to the one man she dared not trust, and her passion for him could not be swayed by reason. Cruel fate tragically plunged Kevin into exile and Alexandra into a loveless marriage. Their forbidden liaison swept them across Queen Elizabeth's divided realm, into a timeless love story that defied borders and boundaries and could not be denied.

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This book was originally published by Harper Monogram in 1993 under the title, "The Highwayman," which was not my choice. I thought that name misrepresented the story, which is the tale of a noblewoman and a political rebel, a love story about opposites attracting and surmounting obstacles to be together. As any fan of historicals knows, highwaymen were thieves who attacked travelers on the wild roads of Elizbethan England. They were criminals who preyed upon average citizens making their way through dangerous territory. Nobles traveled safely on the rivers when they could, since each wealthy house had a boat landing on its estate. I've changed the title of this book to "Lady Selby's Lover" (with a nod to D.H. Lawrence) to make it more compatible with the story. The hero is an Irish tribal chieftain leading a band of his countrymen against the English overlords, a rebellious situation which would persist for five hundred years and still provokes unrest today. At the time of the story the heroine, Alexandra Cummings, flees placement in a convent by her guardian. She lands in Ireland to be captured and falls in love with Kevin Burke, who is holding her hostage. Through the usual fantastic circumstances that enliven such stories, she eventually winds up as a lady-in-waiting in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. She's been forced to marry Lord Selby while in love with, and pregnant by, Burke. I promise that it all does make sense and that none of it has anything to do with highwaymen. The story has much more to do with the course of true love running smooth and pursuing the elevated purpose of freeing a country from foreign domination. I thought I should make that clear at the outset if you're considering reading this book.

In addition, I should explain the portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in the story. She is one of my favorite historical characters, a brilliant and feisty woman in an era wholly dominated by men. I have always enjoyed her attitude about the Irish, who employed their superior knowledge of their home terrain and "scurrilous" (her word) guerilla tactics to outsmart the many bands of English soldiers she sent to subdue them. She found their stubborn persistence to hang on to their island maddening and frustrating and the source of many brief, ineffective truces. However, a grudging admiration for her enemy's courage and persistence comes through in her writings and in the quotes that have come down from her. She also, even at seventy, couldn't resist flirting with a handsome man, which saves Burke's life at the end of the story. So go back with me to 1599 and what I imagined was happening then when I wrote this book. You won't be disappointed.
Doreen Owens Malek
May 15, 2016