The Durable Fire — Sheila Bishop

Kate Marchant was a petite gamine when she first learned to love her dashing and romantic distant cousin Anthony, the Earl of Chepstow. She saw in his tempestuous life a figure too romantic to be real. But soon her illusions were turned to ashes when she became a lady in waiting in the Court of Elizabeth I. Kate was forced to acknowledge the fact that he used women unscrupulously to further his political ambitions and satisfy his burgeoning masculine ego.