He withholds affection, nags and forces himself on her without her consent. Weir writes, ‘She was in love, and the world looked rosier for it.’ Manox manipulates Katheryn’s longing for him by pressuring her to marry him. The relationship with her music teacher, Manox, is shown by Weir to be a battle between a lonely girl longing for caresses and the pleasure of intimacy, with the more rational and sensible girl who knew this could be devastating for her reputation. Rather than stupid, careless or foolishly promiscuous, this Katheryn is naïve and longing for love. This helplessness and vulnerability is reflected throughout the story, and it is only in small ways that Katheryn can grasp at her own identity and independence. She is like a little doll moved this way and that by those more powerful than her. Weir’s Katheryn is grounded in the loss of her mother and the subsequent move into a relative’s home, ‘She had not dreamed that losing Mother would mean losing Father as well.’ Adrift and disposable, the young girl is immediately powerless and has no say in how her life is decided. I received my review copy of Alison Weir’s latest historical novel and read it immediately because, from the first pages, I was hooked by this version of Katheryn that I felt I hadn’t met before.
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