Bride Of Satan

As I approached this woman I stopped in front of her and said "Hi, my name's John, can I help you at all?" She looked up at me from the floor where she had dropped writhing in agony. She said, "Yes please help me" "Can I pray for you?" I asked, and reached out my hand to touch her head. As soon as I touched her head she let out a blood-curdling scream that seemed to shake the whole Church and she began vomiting blood. She ran backwards and out into the reception area outside the Bishop's office and cowered on the floor like a cat cornered by a vicious dog. She was clearly in pain and even though there was evil in her eyes they also seemed to now being showing fear as well. I had no idea what I was really dealing with and would only discover much later on the magnitude of evil in this small woman. This was the beginning of an epic battle and race against time to free an unwilling victim from the clutches of satan himself.

The early Christian writer Tertullian first applied the epithet "bride of Christ" to the uppity virgins of Carthage as a means of enforcing female obedience. Henceforth, the virgin as Christ's spouse was expected to manifest matronly modesty and due submission, hobbling virginity's ancient capacity to destabilize gender roles. In the early Middle Ages, the focus on virginity and the attendant anxiety over its possible loss reinforced the emphasis on claustration in female religious communities, while also profoundly disparaging the nonvirginal members of a given community. With the rising importance of intentionality in determining a person's spiritual profile in the high Middle Ages, the title of bride could be applied and appropriated to laywomen who were nonvirgins as well. Such instances of democratization coincided with the rise of bridal mysticism and a progressive somatization of female spirituality. These factors helped cultivate an increasingly literal and eroticized discourse: women began to undergo mystical enactments of their union with Christ, including ecstatic consummations and vivid phantom pregnancies. Female mystics also became increasingly intimate with their confessors and other clerical confidants, who were sometimes represented as stand-ins for the celestial bridegroom. The dramatic merging of the spiritual and physical in female expressions of religiosity made church authorities fearful, an anxiety that would coalesce around the figure of the witch and her carnal induction into the Sabbath.

A high society bad girl’s plan for marriage backfires in this Regency romance by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Trouble with Honor. Once the toast of society, Grace Cabot and her sisters now await the shame of losing high status and fine luxuries upon the death of the Earl of Beckington. The dire circumstances are inevitable unless, of course, Grace’s wicked plot to seduce a wealthy viscount into marriage goes off without a single hitch. But once a stolen embrace with the wrong man leads her to be discovered in the arms of Jeffrey, the Earl of Merryton, her plan takes a most unexpected—and scorching—twist. Governed by routine and ruled by duty, Jeffrey had no desire for a wife before he succumbed to Grace’s temptation. Though his golden-haired, in-name-only bride is the definition of disorder, he can’t resist wanting her in every way. But once her secrets meet his, society might consider their lives to be ruined beyond repair . . . while Jeffrey might just see it as a new beginning. Originally published in 2015 Perfect for fans of Bridgerton. “London’s writing bubbles with high emotion as she describes sexual enthusiasm, personal grief, and familial warmth. Her blend of playful humor and sincerity imbues her heroines with incredible appeal, and readers will delight as their unconventional tactics create rambling paths to happiness.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review