A siege of Ashcott has deadly consequences and further exacerbates the tension between the two brothers - does Thomazine have the courage to risk everything for love of Francis? Will Cousin Lucy find happiness with the Roundhead officer? That's all I'm telling, any more would give the whole thing away. Thomazine must now find a way to convince Simon to break the betrothal to her cousin Dominic Drakelon (made when she was ten), as well as to mend the deep enmity between the two brothers so that she and Francis can marry.Īs the tensions between King Charles and Parliament heat up into Civil War, the women and children of Goldhayes retreat to the easier defended Ashcott, Thomazine's family home, as the men join forces in support of the King. The elder Simon dies and the estate and Thomazine's wardship is now run by Francis' elder and very intractable brother Simon. Although she loves all of Simon's children, third son Francis has a special place in her heart and they form an unbreakable bond while children that only intensifies when Francis returns from college. Left orphaned (but wealthy) at age ten with her wardship sold to her cousin Simon Heron, Thomazine joins her cousins at the family's estate, Goldhayes. "A marriage of true minds.but so many impediments". She plans to write a book about Alfred the Great if she can fit it in between looking after the children, dogs, cats and husband. Belle gave up teaching in 1985 to spend more time researching and writing.
"The Moon in the Water" and its two sequels were published in the UK and the USA with considerable success. Eventually the agent Vivienne Schuster was wonderfully enthusiastic about it and found a publisher. Married and a teacher of a class of six-year-olds, she wrote in longhand and, while publishers made encouraging noises, no one was prepared to risk publishing a large book by an unknown author. Belle drew up a huge family tree and a plan of the house very like Rushbrooke. Over the next few years 'The Epic', as it became known, grew and grew. She wrote her first book at the age of twelve and having visited the site of a lovely Elizabethan manor house called Rushbrooke and observing the bare, moated island which was all that was left, she wanted to bring Rushbrooke back and chose to do so in print. As a child the books she read were adventure stories like "Treasure Island," "Swallows and Amazons," and the novels of John Buchan and CS Forester. Belle, who also writes contemporary fiction as Alice Marlow, always wanted to be an author.
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