When 17 year old, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, defies his elder brother, Edward IV, and rides to Hornby Castle in the north of Lancashire to help James and Robert Harrington defend their birth-right against Sir Thomas Stanley, he engenders a chain of events that will have repercussions for years to come. His fight for justice for the Harringtons and his relationship with Anne Harrington, whose wardship has been given to Thomas Stanley, causes a rift between the two men that will never be healed, and which will lead to Richard being betrayed when he most needs Stanley’s support. By Loyalty Bound tells the story of Anne Harrington, whose father and grandfather were killed fighting for the Yorkists at Wakefield in 1460. Because her grandfather Thomas died before her father, John, Hornby Castle became her inheritance when she was only five years old and her uncles were virtually dispossessed when her wardship was awarded to Thomas Stanley by the king. The story traces the Harringtons fight to keep possession of their family home, the support given to them by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Richard’s relationship with Anne as she is forced into a marriage arranged for her by her guardian. AUTHOR: Elizabeth Ashworth has been a published author from an early age with an article in Diana magazine at the age of eleven years old, for which she was paid a pound. Since then has had many articles and short stories published in magazines including Lancashire Magazine, The Lady, People’s Friend, My Weekly, Fiction Feast and many others. In 2006 her first local interest book, Champion Lancastrians, was published by Sigma Press. This was followed by Tales of Old Lancashire, from Countryside Books in 2007. A fascination with one of the old stories she discovered whilst researching for this book inspired her to write her first historical novel, The De Lacy Inheritance, which was published in 2010 by Myrmidon Books. Another non-fiction book looking at the burial sites of some notable and interesting characters, Lancashire: Who Lies Beneath? was published in October 2009 and her second historical novel, An Honourable Estate, based on the Mab’s Cross legend, was published in 2012.
