The Queen's Tears by Elizabeth St.John
The Coffee Pot Book Club Blog Tour
The Queen’s Tears by Elizabeth St.John
Today I’m delighted to be highlighting The Queen’s Tears by Elizabeth St.John, a dual timeline novel connecting the threads between a woman in 1619 who has stolen Queen Anna of Denmark’s jewels and a modern day woman who has just opened a bookstore. I’ve included the book description and an excerpt below.
Book Description
A stolen crown jewel and an enigmatic portrait force two women to confront the devastating choices they made for love—and summon the courage to live with the truth.
1619: Barbara, Lady Villiers, at the bidding of her brother-in-law, the Duke of Buckingham, has stolen the dying Queen Anna’s jewels—and kept the greatest prize for herself. The Queen’s Tears, a brooch of extraordinary value, torments her: too dangerous to sell, too priceless to discard, and possibly her only means of securing her children’s future. When the family fortunes are shattered, Barbara faces an impossible choice: remain loyal to Buckingham—or betray him by confessing the theft to King Charles.
Present Day: Julia Darke opens her Cotswolds bookshop to start life over peacefully. Instead, a Van Dyck portrait of Barbara’s daughter, with tantalising signs of the missing Queen’s Tears hidden in plain sight, brings her face-to-face with Oliver Villiers, the Oxford art conservator she once loved and walked away from.
Reluctantly drawn together to uncover Barbara’s secret, Julia and Oliver follow the trail of the Queen’s Tears—and the closer Julia comes to Barbara’s truth, the harder it becomes to hide from her own.
Inspired by the true stories of Queen Anna of Denmark’s stolen jewels and a missing Van Dyck painting, The Queen’s Tears weaves history, fiction, and family research across the centuries. Readers of The Lydiard Chronicles will find old favourites—and a new heroine following in their footsteps.
Buy Link:
Universal Buy Link: https://geni.us/TheQueensTears
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Excerpt
This is excerpt number 2 on the blog tour. To see the other excerpts, click the image below.
Barbara, Chapter 2
Call upon me Buckingham does, the next day, for he is never one to leave money on the table or jewels in a casket. George is the King’s favourite. He wants for nothing, yet still he craves more.
“So you were there with Queen Anna in her last moments on this earth.” What is it about the timbre of his voice that makes me quiver? Such sweet tones, such steel beneath. “At my invitation, you were there. How loyal you are, Barbara, how you always think of me . . . and our family . . . first.”
Ned is still at Westminster. I am alone. Not since that one fevered encounter on my wedding day have I trusted this man, and yet, as a fly to a web, I am coerced by George’s silk and satin and sandalwood scent and never can quite escape.
“I was there as a friend to the Queen,” I reply with the line he has written for me. “We were praying together. I kept her company.”
He steps closer. I stand still, my eyes drawn to the open collar of his black lacework linen shirt, the hint of warm fair skin. “You dismissed the other servants, barred the door to her court, leaving only Pierre and Anika.” He takes a breath, and his chest rises, broadens, strains the lacing. “And then she died.”
“All she desired was peace. The Queen wanted only trusted friends by her, not fawning courtiers. She was going to die anytime.” I turn away, my cheeks flushed that he should interrogate me so. Are we rehearsing, or are his questions real? His manners are gentle, and yet I know the sharpness of his mind, how effortlessly he melds courtier truth and lies.
“How alluring you are when your spirit is raised, Barbara. You may not have Lucy’s beauty, but you have a passion that is infinitely more attractive than your sister’s.” He clasps my shoulders, turns me to face him again. His voice drops to a whisper, making his innuendo all the more poisonous. “Queen Anna died on your watch. And Anika’s father is an apothecary versed in magic . . .”
“You were there. You saw her death.” I toss it back to him.
“Not quite. But near enough that I could placate her courtiers.” He strokes an elegant finger across my throat, pausing where my pulse throbs rapidly, his lips inches away as he murmurs, “Dear, dear. I wonder when they will miss the jewels.”
“No one would suspect me,” I say, placing my finger on his lips, warning caution.
He clasps it and strokes his cheek. The trace of a beard recently grown tingles fragrantly. “And yet you are an accessory to the theft of Queen Anna’s jewels.”
“And you are the instigator.” Reacting to his charm with direct coolness usually calms his spleen and liver, governs his humours.
Buckingham steps back, our intimacy broken as he returns to his real reason for being here. I know him only too well. “Did you store the pouches safely? I will transport them when I am ready. There is more than Ned might mingle into the Mint’s business. Are they well hidden until I arrange for their carriage?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In Lucy’s house. No one would dream the Lieutenant of the Tower would hide Queen Anna’s stolen jewels.” I do not tell him how upset my sister is with me for walking into her fine home early this morning and demanding she concoct a poultice for my aching back, refusing to leave until she did as I wished. I reminded her only dew-drenched comfrey flowers, plucked at sunrise, could make the curative as I shooed her outside. Ever since we were little, I have always been able to order her to my will, and it is particularly helpful now. She may protest and say she has other priorities, but I always win our arguments and always will.
While Lucy was in her garden, I slipped into the Coeur de Lion chamber across from the stillroom and hid the pouches. It is a room used for storage and old furniture and is a rat’s nest of forgotten belongings abandoned by dead prisoners. Who would think of looking there for the Queen’s jewels?
Author Bio
Elizabeth St.John Author
Elizabeth St.John's acclaimed historical fiction brings to life her ancestors—remarkable women linked to England's royalty—offering unique insights into Medieval, Tudor, and Stuart times. Her novels unfold not just as traditional series, but as an interlocking web of lives: The Lydiard Chronicles—including the celebrated The Lady of the Tower—The Godmother's Secret, and The King's Intelligencer explore everything from the English Civil War to the mystery of the Princes in the Tower. Her newest novel, The Queen’s Tears, a dual timeline pursuing a stolen crown jewel, reunites favourite characters from the seventeenth-century with a present-day bookstore owner heroine.
At the heart of her writing is the transformation of real ancestral histories into narratives of historical continuity. She follows threads of legacy through generations, guided as much by wills, letters, portraits, country churches, ruined castles, manor houses, and lost gardens as by imagination. Locations become constant companions through time, while characters whisper across centuries—their decisions resonating in the lives of their descendants to reveal how choices shape legacies. Grounded in historic sites like Lydiard Park and the Tower of London, her work creates a living archival flow that continues to flourish as the past yields its secrets.
Elizabeth divides her time between California, England, and the past, surrounded by books, gardens, and animals, with a slightly bewildered, ever-supportive husband beside her.
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