Although Red Adam’s Lady was first published in 1973, I wasn’t aware of it until a few years ago when it was reissued by Chicago Review Press as part of their Rediscovered Classics series. This edition has a foreword by Elizabeth Chadwick, one of my favourite authors of medieval fiction, and knowing that she rates this book highly was enough to make me want to try it myself.
Julitta de Montrigord is taking shelter from the rain in an alehouse one evening when she is abducted by the drunken Red Adam de Lorismond, the new lord of Brentborough, who carries her off to his castle and into his bedchamber. She manages to defend her virtue by hitting him over the head with a stool and tying him to a bedpost, but is horrified when, in the morning, he insists on making amends by marrying her. Julitta can think of nothing worse – even being sent to a convent seems preferable to her – but her uncle and guardian sees his chance to form an importance alliance with Brentborough and she is eventually left with no option but to agree to the marriage.
Despite the efforts of Julitta’s new husband to redeem himself, she is determined that this will remain a marriage in name only. Meanwhile she has plenty of other distractions; after all, as Red Adam’s Lady she now has a castle to look after and servants to manage – including the jealous chatelaine, Constance, who seems set on making Julitta’s life as difficult as possible.
This vivid and detailed depiction of 12th century castle life is one of the things I particularly enjoyed about this novel. There’s nothing glamorous or fairytale-like about Brentborough Castle; when Julitta first arrives, she discovers that her new home is dirty, neglected and has been badly managed during the lifetime of the previous lord, Adam’s uncle, and it’s fascinating to see how she goes about setting things in order. Away from the domestic setting, we learn a little bit of what is going on elsewhere in the country, with Henry II’s son, the Young King, preparing to rebel against him and England’s nobility facing a choice between one side or the other. Julitta’s uncle and his friends are supporters of the Young King, but Red Adam’s loyalty to Henry II makes him a traitor in their eyes.
There’s also a mystery aspect to the novel, with Julitta and Red Adam trying to find out what really happened to the former lord’s pregnant wife, who was believed to have been murdered although no proof was ever found. When another young man claiming to be the true heir to Brentborough appears on the scene, it becomes more important than ever that the truth is uncovered at last.
As for the romantic element of the story, I think a romance that begins with the hero trying to rape the heroine is always going to be problematic from a modern point of view, though probably not so much in the 1970s when it was written. In this case, it seems so out of character for Adam that the whole opening scene felt to me a little bit contrived, as a way of getting Julitta into the castle and setting up the rest of the story. Apart from that, I thought the characters felt like believable and convincing 12th century people rather than present day people in medieval costume and there was none of the annoying anachronistic language I sometimes come across in the historical fiction being published today.
Grace Ingram’s other novels, Gilded Spurs and several that she wrote under the name of Doris Sutcliffe Adams, all still seem to be out of print. It would be nice if a publisher could give more of them the same treatment as Red Adam’s Lady and make them available to new readers.
Book 32/50 read for the 2021 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge.
Book 4/20 of my 20 Books of Summer 2021
She Reads Novels 
She hits him over the head with a stool! That’s awesome. I like Julitta already. 🙂
She’s a great character!
Doris Sutcliff Adams/Grace Ingram is one of my favourite authors, though I didn’t link the two till I read the second Grace Ingram book, Gilded Spurs, which has the same setting and some of the same characters as one of her earlier novels. Over the years I’ve managed to collect all six in hardback, but they’re scarce and expensive, and like you, I wish they could be republished. All her heroines are feisty, down-to-earth women, and the historical background is impeccably researched. I believe she died about ten years ago, one of my regular second-hand book sources had several of her research books which she’d signed, and he told me that she had suffered a stroke and was then in a nursing home. I do wish she’d written more books, the six that I’ve read are delightful, with a strong sense of humour running through them. Highly recommended.
It’s a shame none of the others have been republished. I had a quick search online for second-hand copies and the prices for most of them are ridiculous.
It was definitely not problematic in the 70’s. In fact, lots of romances began with the heroine being raped by the hero. A very popular one back then was by Kathleen Woodiwiss, The Wolf and the Dove. Her Shanna sort of brought the romance genre to the mainstream back then, although things like that were what made me stop reading those books.
Yes, I’ve read a few older books like that, although I’ve never read The Wolf and the Dove.
It’ll make you mad.
It’s why the genre is called ‘bodice rippers’.
Exactly
I can’t remember if I read this ages ago or not but have you noticed the Constances are almost always the bad guys?!
It hadn’t really occurred to me, but now that you’ve mentioned it I can think of a few!
Have you read one of my all-time favorites, Sabrina by Madeleine Polland? The heroine’s sister is Constance called Connie. She is annoying rather than evil but comes through in the end.
No, actually I haven’t read anything by Madeleine Polland. I obviously need to!
I read this a couple of years back, and was quite surprised by the story. I think it got marketed purely as romance, yet it had a surprisingly grim depiction of the times. There is no doubt that this period was perilous / turbulent (choose your word), and the author didn’t give it any rosy hues or underplay the difficult situation for women. I respected that.
Yes, I found it much more than just a romance. I thought it seemed a very realistic depiction of the 12th century and as I said in my review, nothing glamorous at all about the portrayal of either castle life or what it was like to be a medieval woman!
There was a lot of detail about the daily running of a castle, which I found absolutely fascinating. The author certainly knew her stuff!
True, that!