REVIEW: Wintercombe by Pamela Belle
A- Reviews / Book Reviews / Recommended Reads17th-century / England / English-Civil-War / family relationships / Historical / opposites attract / Stuart-England / War / Military17 Comments
Sometimes we find light in the darkest of places…
Tortured by a cold, Puritan father, Silence has learned to conceal her passionate nature inside a prison like shell of passivity. Her eventual marriage does not offer her the escape that she longs for and she craves some semblance of autonomy. It is only the sweep of history that finally offers Silence the freedom she so desires.
Civil war has raged and her sombre husband has been away for two years. During this time Silence – now Mistress of Wintercombe – has enjoyed a harmonious time with her children. Yet this sheltered world is shattered when enemy Cavaliers invade, causing havoc in the town. Wintercombe, once a tranquil bastion of family virtue, is transformed into an unruly, drunken, and licentious garrison.
As the ugliness of war continues, Silence must learn to shed the submissive nature that life has forced her to assume and draw upon the inner strength that she has always possessed. From this turmoil a still more subtle threat dawns in the handsome shape of Captain Nick Hellier.
As the battle for England is matched by the struggle within her soul, it’s not long before Captain Hellier starts to slowly unlock the chains around Silence’s fragile, Puritan heart…
WARNINGS: The villain of this book is truly despicable. There is a plot point involving Silence’s 15 year old stepdaughter whom the villain threatens with rape. It doesn’t progress beyond the threat but readers with triggers will want to be aware of this.
Dear Ms. Belle,
Yes, this is the book of yours I read a while ago and which sent me on a pre-digital search mission for your (at that point) out of print hardcover books. Since I never did complete that quest, I’m glad to see them being reissued for me and, hopefully soon more, people to discover.
Wintercombe is the first in a series written about a beautiful home in Somerset and its inhabitants during the Civil Wars that ravaged England. It’s a story of a woman taken for granted by all who know her who discovers an inner strength that is honed to fine steel over the course of a year. And how she discovers love with a most unlikely man, the Cavalier captain of the troop of horse which comes to garrison it. I do have to say that even if I love the cover, it’s hardly anything I can see Puritan Silence wearing though to quote Silence’s lady’s maid Mally the woman she do look “tarblish fine.”
Silence St. Barbe is the Puritan wife of a man twice her age who has never loved her. He treats her with condescension, much like a child who needs his firm guidance. Her three stepchildren and three children love her to varying degrees but also take her for granted. She is the calm mistress of a household of servants who still see her as a London outsider and the daughter-in-law of a mean tempered, controlling old biddy who makes the lives of her family a misery – good Lord, Dame Ursula is enough to frighten a whole regimen of demon hellraisers into quivering jelly. Silence is also a woman of hidden passions and needs which no one has ever thought to inquire about much less fulfill.
When a troop of Cavaliers are foisted on the household, Silence discovers she has a resilience she never knew. Determined to protect her home as much as possible from the depredations of the truly vile Lieutenant Colonel in charge of the men, Silence walks a daily tightrope. When the young captain tries to stem some of the violence instigated and or condoned by his colonel, Silence isn’t sure at first if she can trust him. He is, after all, still an enemy. But he’s also the first to truly see into her heart and realize the woman she really is. Initially there are only occasional hints of his feelings and since most of the first half of the book is told only from Silence’s POV, we don’t quite know what Nick is up to either.
Can she forget the tenets of a lifetime, beaten into her by her Puritan father, and the risks she runs and reach out for something she’s never had? Can he ignore the daily reminders that the war isn’t going in the King’s favor and that probably soon he’ll have to leave this household and its mistress who has turned from a harmless dalliance into something much deeper? I like that Silence does a lot of thinking about what her position, marriage and religion demand of her. Adultery is nothing for a Puritan or a woman in this age to lightly brush off as the punishment would be severe. Bonus points that Nick loves Silence just as she is with her sober dress and white caps. It’s his love for her that makes her beautiful in his eyes.
You do a great job with the setting and events of the times. It’s a long (614 pages in my hardback copy) book and some will grow impatient with the slow pace but it shows a wealth of detail about life in a country house of that era, of the politics of the war, and of the people of Somerset. We can truly see that a household of this era wasn’t just the family that owned it but also the servants. Silence knows each and every one of them and we get to know them too. Their strengths and weaknesses, their foibles and idiosyncrasies. They are truly all in this together and the household will sink or swim together. One very nice thing is reading the dialogue and not being subjected to cockney accents as the universal servant language of England. I think I also mentioned this in the review of “The Moon in the Water” but it bears repeating.
Wintercombe is ultimately a story of bittersweet love and of two people who have found their soulmate and who know that it won’t last. Like the Lymond books, the payoff is a while in coming but when it does, it is very powerful. It’s not easy to read a book which you hope will have an ending other than the one you know it does. Some people won’t want to read it for that reason and some because it does deal with adultery. But it is a well written love story and one I’m glad I tracked down back in the day and which I’m glad to see available now. There are three more books in the series and from the blurb of the next book, it seems Nick and Silence will finally get the ending they deserve. A-
~Jayne
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Thanks for reviewing this book. It is one of my favourite books of all time. It deserves to be re-discovered by readers who have been clamoring for a long-slow burn, more accurate history, amazing writing.
And YES, there is a pay-off in bk 2. It is tortuous, but wonderful.
@Allison: “And YES, there is a pay-off in bk 2. It is tortuous, but wonderful.”
This is why I’m making myself space out reading these books. Belle puts you through the wringer and I’m an emotional wreck after finishing one.
Jayne
I do believe you are my reading-twin! I recall going through a whole box of tissues with this one.
I am not quite sure how Belle’s books dropped off the radar–maybe the pace and the length? She wrote historical romantic fiction of the highest caliber; thank you for bringing her works to the attention of a new generation of readers.
btw, that cover you show is just so wrong–the pose, the attitude, the dress! Silence, and the book, deserve much better…
@Jayne: Thanks for the review. I’d never heard of Belle or this series but it sounds right up my alley. As a bonus, the price was right, so I clicked right away.
I have to say that once I clicked I thoroughly fell down the rabbit hole of Amazon recommendations of similar books, including some of my old faves now available in digital. My big payoff was when I saw Valerie Fitzgerald ‘s Zemindar. OMG. One of my favorite romances ever. I still have my ancient Doubleday book club hardback, as well as some of the non-fiction books it spurred me to read (including Christopher Hibbert’s The Great Mutiny). If you haven’t read Zemindar yourself, what are you waiting for?! Make tracks! :-D
@Susan: I have Zemindar in paperback as well. What an incredible book. It’s on kindle?? I’m going to look for it now. Glad I’m not alone. I could only find that book by Fitzgerald.
@Barb in Maryland: Just for you I’ve added two older covers. The second is the one on my old hardback book. It always makes me think of Silence’s beloved garden.
@Susan: As Barb says, for some reason Belle has dropped below the radar – at least in the US. I can’t even remember who it was who first brought her books to my attention but when I went looking for them, they were mostly – or all – out of print. She has two 17C English series – this one and the one started by my previous review of “The Moon in the Water.” (The Heron series).
I need to get back to this one. I got it from the library earlier this year, but life got a hold of me and I had to return it before I got very far with it. Also, the font was really small. Thank goodness I can read the Kindle now! Another good English Civil War family saga is The Quickenberry Tree (I think this one is still out of print).
I also loved Zemindar.
@Jayne
Thank you for the glimpse of the old covers. I do believe that the copy I read had the one featuring Silence.
I did some digging and it appears that Ms Belle’s last published book came out in the late 1990s. The fourth of the Wintercombe books (Treason’s Gift) came out in 1992. With no new books in almost 20 years, it is easy to see how she disappeared from reader awareness.
Ok, I’m in . . . Thanks for the review and all the comments!
@Barb in Maryland: It seems like she’s working on a new book – http://thecasketbypamelabelle.blogspot.co.uk/2015_01_01_archive.html
And it appears to be $.99 on Amazon so, given the excellent review and length, CLICK.
I could stare at the dress for hours.
OK, I chewed my way through the first two books (don’t ask what all I neglected to do this, including sleep) and the thing I’m crushed about is that books 1, 2, and 4 are available but not book 3. ARGH.
Oh and one other thing: I normally can’t deal with books that have the lead couple engaged in adultery. It’s why I can’t stand the Outlander series. But in this book, I actually cheered them on. This is how good of a story this is, and how wonderful of a character Silence especially is.
@Meg: I know! It’s why I’m taking my time before starting “Herald of Joy.” But Belle has promised that they will all be released.
Jayne, thank you so much for the wonderful review! It’s been great knowing that my books are being reissued digitally for not only my previous fans, but hopefully new ones as well. I know some find them a bit slow to get going, but I like to set a scene, build up characters, and let the reader get to know and care for them, before getting bogged down in matters of plot. That way, hopefully, you’ll be desperate to know what happens!
As of writing, all my historical books have been issued on Kindle, with the exception of The Lodestar, which is a stand-alone set at the time of Richard III and the Wars of the Roses, and which should be available very soon. I’ve been so pleased with the reaction to all the books, especially as Alathea was no. 1 in the Historical Fiction/Regency category yesterday evening, with a lovely big ‘Bestseller’ flag on the cover! Yes, I know it’s not Regency, but that’s the pigeonhole Amazon decided to put it in.
As Jayne commented, I’m currently writing a modern novel (with 17th century interludes) as a blog, issued in instalments, and I also have three unpublished novels, one set in 18th century London, one in Elizabethan England, and the other at the time of Alfred the Great, which I hope will see the light of day sometime, even if I have to do it myself!
Once more, many thanks for all your kind comments, and I hope you enjoy the books.
Pam