It’s an absolute pleasure today to share my review of The Merchant’s Dilemma by Carolyn Hughes: described by the author as a companion novel to the Meonbridge Chronicles series, it was published by Riverdown Books on 20th September, and is now available for kindle (free via Kindle Unlimited) and in paperback, available via Amazon in the UK and US. My thanks to Carolyn for providing an advance reading e-copy, with renewed apologies that it’s taken me rather longer to review than I’d originally planned.
Do you know, I can still remember feeling distinctly uncomfortable about picking up a book set in the fourteenth century. In fact, I declined the opportunity when Carolyn offered me a copy of the first Meonbridge Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel back in 2017 – but the guest post she wrote for me, about creating historical authenticity (you’ll find it here), made me particularly want to read the second. I really loved A Woman’s Lot (2018 – you’ll find my review here), and the series just got better and better – with De Bohun’s Destiny in 2019 (you’ll find my review here), Children’s Fate in 2020 (review here), and Squire’s Hazard in 2022 (review here). I’m still not sure quite what I was afraid of – and have made no secret of the fact that I’ve found the whole series so far totally captivating, wonderfully engaging stories set against a meticulously researched and vividly recreated historical world.
This book – a companion novel rather than part of the continuing series – takes up the story of Bea and Riccardo after the end of Children’s Fate, although it can happily be read as a standalone. The author did promise that its subject matter would to be a little more romantic and light-hearted than the main Chronicles – and that, of course, was just fine with me. In fact, I’ll confess I was rather looking forward to it…
1362. Winchester. Seven months ago, accused of bringing plague and death from Winchester, Bea Ward was hounded out of Meonbridge by her former friends and neighbours. Finding food and shelter where she could, she struggled to make her way back to Winchester again.
Yet, once she arrived, she wondered why she’d come.
For her former lover – the love of her life – Riccardo Marchaunt, had married a year ago. And she no longer had the strength to go back to her old life on the streets. Frail, destitute and homeless, she was reduced to begging. Then, in January, during a tumultuous and destructive storm, she found herself on Riccardo’s doorstep. She had no plan, beyond hoping he might help her, or at least provide a final resting place for her poor body.
When Bea awakes to find she’s lying in Riccardo’s bed once more, she’s thankful, thrilled, but mystified. But she soon learns that his wife died four months ago, along with their newborn son, and finds too that Riccardo loves her now as much as he ever did, and wants to make her his wife. But can he? And, even if he can, could she ever really be a proper merchant’s wife?
Riccardo could not have been more relieved to find Bea still alive, when he thought he had lost her forever. She had been close to death, but is now recovering her health. He adores her and wants her to be his wife. But how? His father would forbid such an “unfitting” match, on pain of denying him his inheritance. And what would his fellow merchants think of it? And their haughty wives?
Yet, Riccardo is determined that Bea will be his wife. He has to find a solution to his dilemma… With the help of his beloved mother, Emilia, and her close friend, Cecily, he hatches a plan to make it happen.
But even the best laid plans sometimes go awry. And the path of love never did run smooth…
Something very different from the author this time – not Meonbridge, but a Winchester setting, and a story on a rather smaller scale as we follow the efforts of merchant Riccardo to follow his heart and make Beatrix his wife. So, a romance? Yes, it is – and a really engaging one, set against a particularly authentic 14th century backdrop, when marrying a woman from a different class and with a dubious past proves a considerable challenge.
Having found Bea collapsed on his doorstep, their developing relationship resumes in secret at first – she was formerly his mistress, but circumstances forced them apart, and both are hoping for a happier future now that Riccardo is free to be with her once more. But the barriers are immense – as the eldest son, his ailing father would never accept the possibility of his marrying a former prostitute (despite the coercion that first forced her down that path) and he would lose his inheritance, so they first need to await his death. And that’s only the first hurdle – but help comes from an unexpected direction. His mother Emilia, made aware of their situation, is surprisingly sympathetic – there are parallels in her own story, nicely done – and, with the help of her friend Cecily, sets about establishing the fiction that Beatrix is actually Beatrice, newly arrived from the country and innocent in the ways of the world, suitably demure and a wholly suitable wife for her widowed son.
But her former life proves difficult to escape – a drinking friend recognises her and unwittingly begins to spread rumours, eagerly pounced on by Sarah, the calculating wife of his brother Giacomo, who has ambitions of her own and will go to considerable lengths to achieve them. And from that point, things get even more difficult – not only the likely discovery of their secret, but unfounded accusations about the circumstances of Riccardo’s father’s death that make any possibility of a happy ending increasingly unlikely.
The characterisation in this book is superb, every individual so well developed – and Bea is especially sympathetic, perhaps a tad less naive these days, but her excitement at having refound her lost love and the possibility of a secure and happy future imbued with a joy you can really feel. The romance is very real, and beautifully handled – but although there’s never any doubt about Riccardo’s commitment to their relationship, his hesitation and prevarication might just rather test her patience. Thank goodness for Emilia and Cecily, their united front, and their care in schooling her in the behaviour and appearance that society expects. And then there’s the horrendous Sarah – wonderfully drawn – bitter and twisted, manipulating brother Giacomo’s interventions, and going to such lengths to achieve her own ends.
This is a story that could easily have played out against a Regency backdrop, and it’s sometimes possible to forget that this is the fourteenth century. But although the author’s customary extraordinary attention to detail and meticulous world-building might not be so immediately apparent, the story is very firmly grounded in its era with its familial and societal expectations and conventions. And that’s particularly clever writing – as in the main Chronicles, human nature is the constant, just played out in a different context, and that makes the whole story with its many twists and turns particularly engaging.
Should you share the concerns I initially had about books set in such an unfamiliar historical setting, this might just be a really good place to start – a little more gently than plunging straight into the world of Meonbridge, and with a romance that really was everything I wanted it to be. But do then try the rest of the series – I promise you’ll find it equally accessible, and the author’s writing something you’ll enjoy as much as I always do.
About the author
Carolyn Hughes has lived most of her life in Hampshire. With a first degree in Classics and English, she started working life as a computer programmer, then a very new profession. But it was technical authoring that later proved her vocation, as she wrote and edited material, some fascinating, some dull, for an array of different clients, including banks, an international hotel group and medical instruments manufacturers.
Having written creatively for most of her adult life, it was not until her children flew the nest several years ago that writing historical fiction took centre stage, alongside gaining a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from Portsmouth University and a PhD from the University of Southampton.
You can connect with Carolyn through her excellent website: you’ll also find her on Facebook and Twitter.
