Blackberry and Wild Rose
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By Sonia Velton
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1 review
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When Esther Thorel, the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God’s will.
Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping ‘madam’ is too good to refuse. Inside the Thorels’ tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship.
The physical intimacies of washing and dressing belie the reality: Sara despises her mistress’s blindness to the hypocrisy of her household, while Esther is too wrapped up in her own secrets to see Sara as anything more than another charitable cause. It is silk that has Esther so distracted. For years she has painted her own designs, dreaming that one day her husband will weave them into reality.
When he laughs at her ambition, she unwittingly sets in motion events that will change the fate of the whole Thorel household and set the scene for a devastating day of reckoning between her and Sara. The price of a piece of silk may prove more than either is able to pay.
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Became totally engrossed in this historical novel and really enjoyed it. An engaging story with some great characters set among London's silk weavers in the 1700's. Sonia Velton's writing is easy to read and makes the places and characters spring to life. The plot was intriguing and kept me guessing and the historical detail made it all the more real and interesting. And ouch! the painful irony of the ending for Sara...
