Volume 2: A BUCCANEER AT HEART
After a decade of captaining diplomatic voyages for Frobisher Shipping, alongside covert missions for the Crown, Captain Robert Frobisher decides that establishing a home—with hearth and wife—should be his next challenge. But an unexpected mission intervenes. Although Robert sees himself as a conservative businessman-cum-diplomat and this mission is far from his usual sphere, it nevertheless falls within the scope of his abilities. As matters are urgent, he agrees to depart for West Africa forthwith.
To Robert, his way forward is clear: Get to Freetown, determine the location of a slavers’ camp, return to London with the information, and then proceed to find himself a wife.
Already in Freetown, Miss Aileen Hopkins is set on finding her younger brother Will, a naval lieutenant who has mysteriously disappeared. Find Will and rescue him; determined and resolute, Aileen is not about to allow anyone to turn her from her path.
But all too quickly, that path grows dark and dangerous. And then Robert Frobisher appears and attempts to divert her in more ways than one.
Accustomed to managing diplomats and bureaucrats, Robert discovers that manipulating a twenty-seven-year-old spinster lies outside his area of expertise. Prodded by an insistent need to protect Aileen, he realizes that joining forces with her is the surest path to meeting all the challenges before him—completing his mission, keeping her safe, and securing the woman he wants as his wife.
But the villains strike and disrupt their careful plans—leaving Robert and Aileen no choice but to attempt a last throw of the dice to complete his mission and further her brother’s rescue.
Compelled to protect those weaker than themselves and bring retribution to a heartless enemy, they plunge into the jungle with only their talents and inner strengths to aid them—and with the courage of their hearts as their guide.
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Then the baton is seized and the danger continues in
Volume 3: THE DAREDEVIL SNARED
Captain Caleb Frobisher, hedonistic youngest son of a seafaring dynasty, wants to be taken seriously by his family, and understands he has to prove himself sufficiently reformed. When opportunity strikes, he seizes the next leg of the covert mission his brothers have been pursuing and sails to Freetown. His actions are decisive, and he completes the mission’s next stage—but responsibility, once exercised, has taken root, and he remains in the jungle to guard the captives whose rescue is the mission’s ultimate goal.
Katherine Fortescue has fled the life of poverty her wastrel father had bequeathed her and come to Freetown as a governess, only to be kidnapped and put to work overseeing a child workforce at a mine. She and the other captured adults understand that their lives are limited by the life of the mine. Guarded by well-armed and well-trained mercenaries, the captives have been searching for some means of escape, but in vain. Then Katherine meets a handsome man—a captain—in the jungle, and he and his crew bring the sweet promise of rescue.
The sadistic mercenary captain who runs the mine has other ideas, but Caleb’s true strength lies in extracting advantage from adversity, and through the clashes that follow, he matures into the leader of men he was always destined to be. The sort of man Katherine can trust—with her body, with her life. With her love.
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The first voyage is one of exploration, the second one of discovery. The third journey brings maturity, while the fourth is a voyage of second chances. Continue the journey and follow the adventure, the mystery, and the romances to the thrilling end.
Sail into excitement in the thrilling conclusion:
Volume 4: LORD OF THE PRIVATEERS
The eldest of the Frobisher brothers and widely known as the lord of the privateers, Royd Frobisher expects to execute the final leg of the rescue mission his brothers have been pursuing. What he does not expect is to be pressured into taking his emotional nemesis, childhood sweetheart, ex-handfasted bride, and current business partner, Isobel Carmichael, with him. But is it Isobel doing the pressuring, or his own restless unfulfilled psyche?
Resolute, determined, and an all but unstoppable force of nature, Isobel has a mission of her own—find her cousin Katherine and bring her safely home. And if, along the way, she can rid herself of the lingering dreams of a life with Royd that still haunt her, well and good.
Neither expects the shock that awaits them as they set sail aboard Royd’s ship, much less the new horizons that open before them as they call into London, then, armed with the necessary orders and all arrangements in place, embark on a full-scale rescue-assault on the mining compound buried in the jungle.
Yet even with the support of his brothers and their ladies and, once rescued, all the ex-captives, Royd and Isobel discover that freeing the captives is only half the battle. In order to identify and convict the backers behind the illicit enterprise—and protect the government from catastrophic destabilization—they must return to the ballrooms of the haut ton, and with the help of a small army of supporters, hunt the villains on their home ground.
But having found each other again, having glimpsed the heaven that could be theirs again, how much are they willing to risk in the name of duty?
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Author’s Note
Readers often ask how much of what I write is based on fact. In general, the answer is: Not much. My characters and storylines are usually one hundred percent fictional, albeit based on prevailing mores and the probable occupations, interests, and activities of the relevant era. The one arena in which I try to be accurate to the time is in geography—in the placement of houses in the countryside, in the streets my characters walk in London, in the buildings of note they would see. In the main, I use historical fact as a backdrop—for color, for interest, for atmosphere. Where real historical figures appear in my works, they are usually restricted to the background—another element of historical color.
Occasionally, however, historical fact is just too perfect to pass up. In the case of the Devil’s Brood Trilogy, a number of historical facts fitted the storyline too perfectly not to be incorporated into the work. So for those interested in such things, in this first volume, the historical facts woven into the story are:
1) the Young Irelander movement and the unrest of 1848
The Young Irelanders were a group of largely young Irishmen who actively supported the radical, post-union view of Irish Republicanism, which held that the use of force was necessary to found a secular Irish republic.
The Young Irelanders were inspired by the French Revolution and, most relevant to this story, emboldened by the wave of popular revolutions that swept Europe in 1848 in what became variously known as the “Springtime of the People,” “the People’s Spring,” and “the Year of Revolution,” during which governments and monarchies were overthrown. Countries affected included France, with the overthrow of King Louis-Phillipe and the establishment of the Second Republic, as well as the Germanic States, the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, Denmark, Wallachia, Poland, and the Netherlands, among others. The revolutions were democratic in nature, removing old feudal structures and creating independent national states, abolishing serfdom, ending absolute monarchies, and extending suffrage.
In July 1848, in response to the imposition of martial law by the English authorities, under the leadership of W.S. O’Brien, T.M. Meagher, and J.B. Dillon, the Young Irelanders launched a rebellion, sweeping through Co. Wexford, Co. Kilkenny, and into Co. Tipperary, culminating in a stand-off at the Widow McCormack’s cottage in Ballingarry. The stand-off ultimately turned violent. English reinforcements arrived, and the Young Irelander leaders were arrested, tried and convicted of sedition, and ultimately transported.
Although this broke the back of the Young Irelander movement, intermittent resistance continued to
at least the end of 1849.
It is against this historical background that Drake and his political masters in Whitehall view and react to the rumors of a fresh Young Irelander plot.
2) the manufacture, storage, and transport of gunpowder
Gunpowder is composed of specific ratios of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and coal (charcoal). Each component is supplied as a powder and combined by being ground together under mill wheels, the resulting mass dampened, and later dried in small, grain-sized pellets. Gunpowder was manufactured in various mills; in England, these were concentrated in the southwest, the southeast around the Thames estuary, and in Cumbria. There were also gunpowder mills in Ireland, including a major one at Ballincollig, outside Cork. At the time of this story, almost all gunpowder mills in England and Ireland were in private hands. The government Board of Ordnance placed orders with many for supplies for the armed services. In addition, the gunpowder was used for explosives for mining and building, and for fireworks, as well as being exported.
The performance of gunpowder is highly susceptible to atmospheric moisture. The transport of gunpowder was usually by water as far as possible, but the issue of the gunpowder getting damp, and thus becoming useless, was a very real one (thus the many references to keeping your powder dry). Gunpowder barrels were usually made of oak by coopers trained to fit the staves especially tightly to prevent any degree of atmospheric seepage.
Where exactly in Ireland Connell Boyne got his ten barrels of gunpowder from is anyone’s guess, but he could have got them from the Ballincollig Mill.
All goods brought into the Pool of London were scrutinized for excise, so ten barrels of gunpowder would have been noted and would have been traceable from that point had the barrels been brought into England by that route. In contrast, the coast of Kent was a well-known smugglers’ coast and its limestone cliffs were indeed pocked with caves. It seems likely that Connell Boyne would have been chosen for his role in the plot most particularly because of his ability to arrange for the illicit barrels to be delivered to and stored in the cave beneath the Pressingstoke Hall estate.
To get the barrels into London without anyone in authority noticing, the barrels would have to be picked up by carters, about whom you will learn more in the next volume of this series.
3) Wellington’s presence at Walmer Castle
In 1850, the Duke of Wellington, although a very old man, still held the position of Lord of the Cinque Ports, as well as that of Commander-in-Chief of the Army, among other titles. He was known to retire to Walmer Castle every autumn; he acknowledged it as his favorite residence.
Because of his long association with the corridors of power through his years in Parliament, ultimately serving as Prime Minister twice, Wellington was well acquainted with the various sources of political unrest. More, he was Anglo-Irish himself, had in his early career served in Ireland, was critically influential in getting the Catholic Emancipation Act through Parliament in 1829, and unquestionably retained a keen interest in that particular area. Wellington retired from public life in 1846, but returned in 1848, when he was involved in organizing a military force to protect London through that year of widespread political unrest. He was still privately abreast of politics in 1852.
So at the time of our story, Wellington was still well connected with all levels of government, and as he was at Walmer Castle at the time, it is reasonable to suppose that Sebastian Cynster, the heir to another duke with whom Wellington would have been acquainted since Waterloo, would have known Wellington was there, and given the situation, would have consulted him, hoping to pick his brains.
Walmer Castle is still standing and is essentially as described.
4) the emergence of “the Press”
Newspapers had evolved significantly from the news sheets of earlier decades. By 1850, there were literally dozens of newspapers published in London, and the proprietors of the many dailies were engaged in furious competition for readers. The coverage of crimes had already become a staple, one especially useful for driving circulation, and “newsmen,” those we would now term reporters, were employed and sent out to cover the latest sensation (no, nothing much has changed!). Sebastian’s prediction of having to run the gauntlet of a horde of pressmen at the gates in order to escape Pressingstoke Hall is all too likely to have been true. The lure of sensational murders at a country house party at a lordly estate would have brought the eager vultures of the press running—and the coast of Kent isn’t far from London.
The second and third volumes of this trilogy also incorporate further historical facts. For your interest, I will continue to describe those in notes at the back of the relevant volumes.
Stephanie.
Also by Stephanie Laurens
Cynster Novels
Devil’s Bride
A Rake’s Vow
Scandal’s Bride
A Rogue’s Proposal
A Secret Love
All About Love
All About Passion
On A Wild Night
On A Wicked Dawn
The Perfect Lover
The Ideal Bride
The Truth About Love
What Price Love?
The Taste of Innocence
Temptation and Surrender
Cynster Sisters Trilogy
Viscount Breckenridge to the Rescue
In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster
The Capture of the Earl of Glencrae
Cynster Sisters Duo
And Then She Fell
The Taming of Ryder Cavanaugh
Cynster Special
The Promise in a Kiss
By Winter’s Light
Cynster Next Generation Novels
The Tempting of Thomas Carrick
A Match for Marcus Cynster
The Lady By His Side
An Irresistible Alliance (coming May 11, 2017)
The Greatest Challenge of Them All (coming July 13, 2017)
The Casebook of Barnaby Adair Novels
Where the Heart Leads
The Peculiar Case of Lord Finsbury’s Diamonds
The Masterful Mr. Montague
The Curious Case of Lady Latimer’s Shoes
Loving Rose: The Redemption of Malcolm Sinclair
Bastion Club Novels
Captain Jack’s Woman (Prequel)
The Lady Chosen
A Gentleman’s Honor
A Lady of His Own
A Fine Passion
To Distraction
Beyond Seduction
The Edge of Desire
Mastered by Love
Black Cobra Quartet
The Untamed Bride
The Elusive Bride
The Brazen Bride
The Reckless Bride
The Adventurers Quartet
The Lady’s Command
A Buccaneer at Heart
The Daredevil Snared
Lord of the Privateers (coming Dec 2016)
Other Novels
The Lady Risks All
Novellas
Melting Ice – from the anthologies Rough Around the Edges and Scandalous Brides
Rose in Bloom – from the anthology Scottish Brides
Scandalous Lord Dere – from the anthology Secrets of a Perfect Night
Lost and Found – from the anthology Hero, Come Back
The Fall of Rogue Gerrard – from the anthology It Happened One Night
The Seduction of Sebastian Trantor – from the anthology It Happened One Season
Short Stories
The Wedding Planner – from the anthology Royal Weddings
A Return Engagement – from the anthology Royal Bridesmaids
UK-Style Regency Romances
Tangled Reins
Four in Hand
Impetuous Innocent
Fair Juno
The Reasons for Marriage
A Lady of Expectations
An Unwilling Conquest
A Comfortable Wife
&n
bsp; Medieval (writing as M.S. Laurens)
Desire’s Prize
About the Author
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens began writing romances as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly became a career when her first novel was accepted for publication, and with entirely becoming alacrity, she gave up writing about facts in favor of writing fiction.
All Laurens’s works to date are historical romances, ranging from medieval times to the mid-1800s, and her settings range from Scotland to India. The majority of her works are set in the period of the British Regency. Laurens has published more than 60 works of historical romance, including 37 New York Times bestsellers. Laurens has sold more than 20 million print, audio, and e-books globally. All her works are continuously available in print and e-book formats in English worldwide, and have been translated into many other languages. An international bestseller, among other accolades, Laurens has received the Romance Writers of America® prestigious RITA® Award for Best Romance Novella 2008 for The Fall of Rogue Gerrard.
Laurens’s continuing novels featuring the Cynster family are widely regarded as classics of the historical romance genre. Other series include the Bastion Club Novels, the Black Cobra Quartet, and the Casebook of Barnaby Adair Novels. All her previous works remain available in print and all e-book formats.
For information on all published novels and on upcoming releases and updates on novels yet to come, visit Stephanie’s website: www.stephanielaurens.com
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