[Women of Pepys's Diary 02] • A Plague on Mr Pepys

1665 and The Great Plague has London in its grip.

As the summer heat rises, red crosses mark the doors, and wealthy citizens flee. Only the poor remain to face the march of death ...

Ambitious and attractive Bess Bagwell is determined her carpenter husband, Will, should make a name for himself. So she schemes to meet Samuel Pepys, diarist, friend of the King, and an important manin the Navy shipyards.

But Pepys has his own motive for cultivating Bess, and it is certainly not to benefit her husband.

With pestilence rife in the city, all trade ceases. Will is forced to invest in his unscrupulous cousin Jack's dubious 'cure' for the pestilence. But this only horrifies Bess and leaves them deeper in debt. Now they are desperate for money, and the dread disease is moving ever closer. Pepys's help seems to be the only answer.

But as with all bargains, there's a price to pay. A price that will cost more than Bess has to give.