Treason's Gift - Hardcover

Fourth in Belle's 17th-century St. Barbe romantic adventures, this one featuring the stormy marriage of Louise and Sir Alexander St. Barbe at the time of the bloodless invasion of England by William of Orange. In the summer of 1686 at Wintercombe, the St. Barbe ancestral home, Louise grieves for a stillborn son, and her depression begins to sour a hitherto jolly union. There'll be rows, sulks, and even blows before Alexander storms off--only to get disgracefully bagged, have a ripe affair in Bath, and rage on to Holland. Helping along the way are Alexander's plain and plain-spoken sister Phoebe of Bath, who houses Louise and Alexander's natural son, Lucas, and Grandmother Silence (of Wintercombe, 1988). Meanwhile, lurking nastily is cousin Charles, who wants both Wintercombe and Louise and who has tried before to erase Alexander (A Falling Star). All affairs of the heart, however, are caught up in a larger swirl of events as James II is about to be dethroned and as anti-Catholic, nationalist sentiment swells--a movement clandestinally aided by Alexander and a courtier who proposes to Phoebe (to her bafflement). Much muttering of plots, a royal progress, until finally the wind stands fair for England, the couples pair off, and Charles blazes to his doom. A restful cruise for the St. Barbe faithful and period-romance insatiables. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

An outstanding historical novelist, Belle now adds another volume to her impressively researched and crafted series set during the English Civil Wars. Once again, we meet characters she introduced in Wintercombe . When the handsome rake Sir Alexander St. Barbe and his captivating wife, Louise, lose their first child, Louise retreats into her grief and Alex has a foolish affair. Though the couple reconcile, Alex's vicious aunt reveals Alex's indiscretion to Louise, causing another breach between them; then Alex's actions during a drunken rage force him to flee the country. In the Netherlands, Alex comes to lead the party that is encouraging their Highnesses of Orange to assume the British throne before James II can relight the fires of Smithfield. Meanwhile, Alex's cousin and nemesis Charles, long desirous of his wife and home, usurps Wintercombe. Again, Belle's characters are sympathetic and well drawn, her prose fluid and her plotting adroit, historic figures meshing seamlessly with fictional ones.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.