The Berylford Scandals: Lust & Liberty

Lust & Liberty is a romantic mystery novel on an epic scale. Detailing the town of Berylford’s forbidden liaisons, blackmail, bribery and deception, amid a society obsessed with social and financial status…

The first part of THE BERYLFORD SCANDALS follows the grieved Countess of Vyrrington. A lady considered by most as a paragon of virtue, wisdom and nobility. But also, a lady trapped in mourning for the three children she has buried. And for her declining marriage to Lord Wilson Vyrrington, who has grown cold, silent and reclusive. This, she has reinforced by taking on a lover, in the form of the handsome footman Jesse Blameford. A blitzkrieg on their pleasure, and on the Countess’ conscience, is the butler George Whitlocke, who is zealously loyal to his lord.

Lady Vyrrington is forced to sacrifice her intermittent happiness for her lover’s own protection when a mysterious disappearance of a servant boy occurs, and suspicions fall on him. All the while, she grapples with threats to her person, her reputation and social rank, from both within and outside her household. And her own lustful desires.

Her friends’ lives are far from peaceful either. Townswoman and military widow Judith-Ann Haffisidge must protect a secret of her own. When the past comes back to haunt her with an anonymous, cryptic message from an enemy she was not aware she had hanging over her. All the while, her nephew-in-law Luke Warwick, whom she mutually despises, plots against her for his own motives.

As the separate dramas pulsate, lives of friend and foe alike are thrown upside-down. From the fiery Elspeth Urmstone, the formidable Abel Stirkwhistle and his tyrannical sister Miss Rebecca, to the greedily ambitious Judge Ezrington. All talk, or are talked about, in a place where there are no such things as private affairs.