She came to claim a title. She left knowing her blood belonged to the looms.
Madeline Wetherby travels to Shaftsbury Castle to marry an earl she has never met - only to find that no one inside its walls has heard of her, or of the betrothal his late father supposedly arranged. Within days she uncovers a truth more dangerous than any broken engagement: she is no Wetherby by blood at all. She was adopted in secret as an infant. Her real father was a weaver - one of the very men now massing in the streets of Manchester against the masters who own the mills.
Suddenly Maddie belongs everywhere and nowhere - to an aristocracy that never wanted her, to a merchant class that would recoil if it knew her origins, and to the working people whose blood she carries and whose cause is hardening into fury. As the summer of 1819 drives the city toward the killing ground of St. Peter's Field, the safety of silence becomes a luxury she can no longer afford.
Nash Quinn, the earl's merchant brother, sees the steel beneath her careful composure. And in him, Maddie sees a man worth the risk of being truly known. But loving each other means surviving a secret that could ruin them both - in a city about to tear itself apart.
An Untitled Lady is a standalone novel of identity, class, and conscience set against the Peterloo Massacre, for readers of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South and the British historical fiction of Beverley Watts. Featured by USA Today and the Historical Fiction Society.
"Powerful. Disturbing. Heartbreaking. Smart. Occasionally gentle, often brutal. And always enthralling. An atypical setting, an actual historical event, masterfully layered characters and a sophisticated, seamless narrative -- An Untitled Lady is a standout, gripping historical romance, unlike any Regency you've ever read."--USA Today
"The social turmoil in Manchester leading to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 is the unusual setting for Penttila's quietly stunning, memorable debut novel. A very highly recommended book."--Historical Novel Society
