One night, Harry and Elizabeth spend an especially long night out, their lust overcomes them, and they sleep together in a garden. Unwilling to return to his father, Harry Winthrop instead stays at Thomas Fones's house and spends his time frolicking with his equally profligate friends. Unlike his father and brother, Harry Winthrop is wild and carefree, reckless to the point that he has depleted all his money and nearly brought his family to financial ruin.

Just as she becomes engaged to Howes, her cousin Harry, Jack's younger brother, returns from his adventures in Barbados. Though she is in love with her cousin John ('Jack') Winthrop, Jr., it is Jack's friend Edward Howes who seeks to marry her.

Years later, Elizabeth Fones has become a beautiful young woman working in her ailing father's apothecary. Elizabeth is caught blaspheming and is beaten, resulting in her becoming areligious and instilling in her a hatred for her uncle. Elizabeth's uncle, John Winthrop, is especially pious and strict about Protestantism and he chides his sister for not taking proper care of her children, Elizabeth in particular, who is hot-headed and capricious. The Winthrop Woman begins with young Elizabeth Fones and her family travelling to visit their family at their grandfather's countryside estate. Excerpt: First published in 1958, The Winthrop Woman is Anya Seton's historical novel about Elizabeth Fones, the niece and daughter-in-law of John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Chapters: The Winthrop Woman, Katherine, Avalon, Dragonwyck, My Theodosia, Green Darkness, the Turquoise, Smouldering Fires. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge.

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