Description of Inquisitor’s Niece by Erika Rummel
Publisher: Bygone Era Books, Ltd. (March 31, 2016)
Category: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 978-1-941072-38-7
ASIN: B01B8KEW36
Tour Date: May/June, 2016
Available in: Print & ebook, 394 Pages
The path of true love never runs straight. Alonso and Luisa love each other, However there are a few obstacles to their happiness: the husband she was forced to marry; her uncle, the Regent of Spain; and Alonso’s Jewish family. Mix in the meddlesome Natale, whose loyalty is always to the highest bidder, and you have a story of a courageous couple determined to be happy together, despite the cards being stacked against them. Using the tumultuous period of Spain immediately following the deaths of Ferdinand and Isabella as her canvas, Erika Rummel paints a portrait of an era where Cardinals hold supreme power, Jews are forcibly converted to Christianity, and the spies of the Inquisition are everywhere.
Praise for Head Games by Erika Rummel
"Head Games is a unique and entertaining adventure with heart. There are the thrills of the adventure itself and we get to see the depth of the characters as they experience their fast paced South American quest. The story felt new and fresh!"-Valerie Mitchell, Mama Likes This
"This is a fast paced page turner. A suspenseful, thrilling roller coaster ride with lots of twisty, loopy sections. Head Games is an apt title for this enthralling read. "- Joy Renee, Joy Story
“Identity’s a big theme in this work, so if you’ve ever felt you were someone other than yourself, if you thought you might like to try living in someone else’s skin, if you’ve wondered whether your friends and loved ones were not exactly who they claimed to be, then this psychological labyrinth might just be your winding road to a good read”.- Carole Giangrande, Words to Go
Read an Excerpt!
THE INQUISITOR’S NIECE,
Planning his journey to Alcala calmed Alonso, but reason loses its power after midnight when the shadows of darkness descend on a man’s soul. Alonso prided himself on being a man of science and not easily overwhelmed by fantastic dreams, but that night he fell prey to a disturbing vision.
He found himself wandering through a place of echoes and shadows. Suddenly the murky darkness lit up, and two figures appeared in a halo of crackling flames. He recognized his father and, beside him, a mysterious young woman whose beautiful pale face was streaming with tears. Flames threatened to engulf the pair. The old man’s hand glowed like iron softened on an anvil. He placed it on the girl’s head in a gesture of blessing. “Don’t weep, my daughter,” he said. Soon both were caught in a vortex of flames, but before Alonso lost sight of them, his father raised a finger to him in caution: “Remember Rashi’s advice,” he said: “first prayer, then bribes, and lastly combat.” But perhaps it was the woman who said the words, for surely his father would have quoted Rashi in Hebrew.
Alonso awoke to the clanging of the cathedral bells dinning a message into his ears: “Al-ca-la! Al-ca-la!” He opened his eyes and stared in confusion at the gray light of dawn filtering through the shutters of his bedroom window. Regaining possession of his senses, he realized that he had heard only the metal tongues of the church bells, a sound without words, and that the young woman had been a dream image. The fumes of an unsettled mind, he told himself, and yet his heart was pounding. The figure of the dream woman was haunting the room, and the echo of his father’s voice quivered in the air. Alonso would have pushed aside the nocturnal vision as empty vapours, had it not been for filial love. Alonso’s father had been a firm believer in prophetic dreams. Respect for his memory would not allow Alonso to dismiss the dream out of hand. Could it be that the souls of the departed were able to communicate with the living, that a father’s love transcended death? But who was the young woman weeping for his father – or was she weeping for him? The dream held him in thrall, and the bells tolling Al-ca-la were like a confirmation that his plan of action was right. I will go to Alcala, he thought, and petition the Inquisitor General for an exemption from the judgment.
…
[Alonso arrives in Alcala and joins the spectators that thronged the road, waiting for the Corpus Christi procession to pass.]
Twelve choirboys dressed as angels and four postulants representing the evangelists came first. They were followed by the canons of the cathedral of Alcala, carrying the relics of saints in jeweled cases. A decorated float bearing the Holy Sacrament came next, shrouded in the perfumed mist of frankincense. Behind the float and a troop of altar boys swinging censers, the Cardinal and his retinue walked in measured steps.
The balconies and loggias on both sides of the street were decked out with embroidered cloth and crowded with onlookers. Alonso’s attention was caught by a slender young woman sitting by the side of her aya. When she lowered the fan concealing her face, Alonso was astonished to find that he was looking at the young woman he had seen in his dreams, who had appeared by the side of his father in a halo of flames. No, surely his eyes were playing him a trick!
A chill ran through his body. There was something mesmerizing in the young woman’s eyes. He could not stop looking at her luminous face. He was stricken with her exquisite beauty and the wonder of seeing the woman of his dreams in the flesh. She fastened her gaze on Alonso -- or so it seemed to him -- and smiled a bewitching smile. As he was staring at her with a strange longing, the procession suddenly came to a halt and the celebrants parted in confusion. A man wearing the Franciscan garb had sunk to the ground and was lying on the pavement, unconscious. Two friars lifted him up and carried him to the side of the road.
With difficulty, Alonso turned his eyes from the dream woman’s face. She had risen from her seat and was looking down on the unconscious man with pity. Her mouth was drawn into the shape of a rosebud, breathing a soft Oh!
The sick man shuddered and moaned as if he had been pierced by an arrow.
The crowd parted to make way for him and his bearers. A woman standing beside Alonso stepped back hastily, held a handkerchief to her mouth and murmured: “God have mercy on us and protect us from the sweating sickness.”
Alonso recovered his bearings and remembered the Hippocratic Oath which obliged all practitioners of medicine to come to the aid of the sick.
“I am a physician,” he said to the friars and offered his help.
[And this is how Alonso made the acquaintance of the Franciscan who was to become his nemesis and first laid eyes on the dream woman – Luisa, the Inquisitor’s niece.]
Erika Rummel is the author of more than a dozen non-fiction books and three novels: 'Playing Naomi', 'Head Games', 'The Inquisitor’s Niece'. She won the Random House Creative Writing Award (2011) for a chapter from 'The Effects of Isolation on the Brain', which is forthcoming. She is the recipient of a Getty Fellowship and the Killam Award. Erika grew up in Vienna, emigrated to Canada and obtained a PhD from the University of Toronto. She taught at Wilfrid Laurier and U of Toronto. She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria. Erika's Website:
http://www.erikarummel.com/
Erika's Blog: http://rummelsincrediblestories.blogspot.ca/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/historycracks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erika.rummel.1
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