Venus Rising

A novel portraying ironic insight into the mid-nineteenth century, where a puritan régime persists on the surface but certainly not beneath it. . .. After the death of his reprobate uncle, the idealistic young squire Gareth Seaborne inherits the family estate, together with money only to be awarded if there is a son and heir born within two years.. Stella, the squire's beautiful wife of Viking descent, fails to become pregnant, so a plan is hatched whereby the devoted maid-servant Pilar secretly gives birth to a boy. The deception is uncovered by the cruel and lascivious Sheriff Stern, who blackmails his way into Stella's bed. From this liaison a daughter is born, who is deaf but grows to have her father's licentious ways; and a new-found wantonness is awakened in Stella who, with the squire away helping the Irish in the famine, becomes ever more inextricably involved with the man she originally despised.. Secrecy and intrigue abound as these characters continue their improper course, just as that of the luminous planet Venus. But which of them will finally be fulfilled?