For the Master's Sake: A Story of the Days of Queen Mary

London, 1555. The fires of Smithfield burn for those who will not bend the knee to Rome, and in the shadow of St. Paul's, ordinary people weigh their consciences against survival. Agnes Stone has no congregation to hide in, no martyr's courage yet tested. She has only a bitter guardian, Mistress Winter, who treats the orphaned girl as a drudge paid for by cold charity. When Agnes hears the preaching of John Laurence, his radical message of grace over ritual, of direct communion with God instead of priestly mediation, ignites something in her that years of harsh treatment had nearly extinguished. She must choose: the quiet submission that would buy her physical safety, or the dangerous new faith that promises something far more precious than comfort. Written in 1883 by prolific children's author Emily Sarah Holt, this is Victorian Protestant historical fiction at its most earnest - a story about the price of conviction and the small, daily heroism of maintaining one's humanity under tyrannical authority.