Shades of Yellow, Excerpt by Wendy J.Dunn

During her battle with illness, Lucy Ellis found solace in writing a novel about the mysterious death of Amy Robsart, the first wife of Robert Dudley, the man who came close to marrying Elizabeth I. As Lucy delves into Amy’s story, she also navigates the aftermath of her own experience that brought her close to death and the collapse of her marriage.

After taking leave from her teaching job to complete her novel, Lucy falls ill again. Fearing she will die before she finishes her book, she flees to England to solve the mystery of Amy Robsart’s death.

Can she find the strength to confront her past, forgive the man who broke her heart, and take control of her own destiny?

Who better to write about a betrayed woman than a woman betrayed?

Excerpt

The short drive to Wytham took them through high, open country. Max parked right near All Saints’ Church. ‘I’ll stay put, if you don’t mind. These suede shoes are new. They like wet ground less than my runners. But please take your time. More than happy to phone Sarah before we head back to the motorway.’

‘Don’t think I’ll be gone too long.’ Lucy laughed. ‘We have more than enough of close to two-hundred-year-old churches in Australia.’

Still, the church appeared just as old as the other two they had visited the day before. I shouldn’t be surprised they rebuilt All Saints by recycling parts from far more ancient buildings. The surrounding countryside also strengthened her sense of the long ago past.

With notes in hand, she hurried to the church’s porch, avoiding all the puddles on the way. Halting inside, she looked at the stone entrance, trying to make sense of the weave of stone, and what belonged to two hundred years ago, what belonged to a time much older than that. She rested her hands on the stone. This entrance was once one of the four entrances to the Great Hall at Cumnor Place. During the last days of her life, Amy would have passed through this entrance to dine. How I wish the stones could speak to me.

With the door already open, she stepped inside the small church. Once more, she lit a candle and closed her eyes to pray. Dear God, let the doctor be wrong. Please don’t let it be cancer. It can’t be cancer. Not again.

Shutting down her thoughts, Lucy dashed towards the south nave, glancing at the carved heads of the corbels supporting the roof. The closest one was female. She remembered from her notes that no one could give a name to the woman, but they suspected she was a nun from her close-fitting wimple.

Folding her notes and placing them in her coat’s deep pocket, Lucy studied the other corbel on this side, almost laughing at the head’s carved hair. Unidentified too, the hatless, bearded man looked like he had used a curling wand to turn up the ends of his hair.

She walked up and down the aisle, taking photos and admiring the windows’ flowing tracery. She tried to imagine the three fourteenth-century windows in their original location. To imagine Amy at Cumnor Place, looking out of these very windows. Can they have come from her chamber? Lucy resisted drawing out her notes from her pocket. They would not tell her what she wanted to know. No one could. No one had thought to record the architectural features of Cumnor Place or the windows’ location when they pulled down the building in 1811. All she could do was to fill these vast gaps of unknowing with her imagination.

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Meet Wendy J. Dunn

WENDY J. DUNN is a multi-award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of Dear Heart, How Like You This, her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder.

Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to build up their holdings. It seems very likely Wendy’s ancestors knew the Wyatts and Boleyns personally.

Wendy gained her PhD in 2014 and tutors in writing at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. She loves walking in the footsteps of the historical people she gives voice to in her books.