The Wronged Wife

Imagine you are a Tudor Countess, a young mother whose husband has gone away to fight for King Henry VIII against the French.

You love your husband, Richard, Lord Moreton, you adore him. But in his absence he has asked his brother, Stephen, to look after you. You do not like Stephen, you never have and you don't trust him either.

You are right not to trust him, because his idea of looking after his brother's wife is to take that brother's place in her bed.

By the time the Earl comes home, his Countess is with child from an attack by Stephen.

But Richard won't listen; he won't believe his brother could do such a thing and believes the pair having been having an affair behind his back. He takes his young daughter and leaves, goes to his London house and doesn't see his wife again until his daughter is twelve.

That is when a monk from Black Friars comes to tell him his brother is dying and asking for him. He doesn't want to go; he doesn't care if Stephen wants to get his sins off his chest, but he is curious to know why Stephen is dying in a London monastery instead of living with Richard's wife and the child they had together.

That is what Richard believed was happening. Had he bothered to open his wife's letters, he would have known better.

Feeling the deep shame of his own actions, he knows he must return his daughter to her mother, so he makes the long journey to Cornwall. He is a warrior who has fought many battles for King Henry, but he has never known such fear as he feels now, anticipating meeting the wife he wronged.

Hoping for forgiveness, although not expecting it, his only purpose in the journey is to bring his daughter home. When he finds his wife in possession of the dangerous writings of Martin Luther, he has to protect her for herself.