
Published by Regan Walker Publishing Purchase: Amazon
Goodreads
"Regan Walker sweeps you away to a time and place you'll NEVER want to leave!" ~ Danelle Harmon, NY Times & USA Today Bestselling Author
England and France 1784
Cast out by his noble father for marrying the woman he loved, Jean Donet took to the sea, becoming a smuggler, delivering French brandy and tea to the south coast of England. When his young wife died, he nearly lost his sanity. In time, he became a pirate and then a privateer, vowing to never again risk his heart.
As Donet’s wealth grew, so grew his fame as a daring ship’s captain, the terror of the English Channel in the American War. When his father and older brother die in a carriage accident in France, Jean becomes the comte de Saintonge, a title he never wanted.
Lady Joanna West cares little for London Society, which considers her its darling. Marriage in the ton is either dull or disastrous. She wants no part of it. To help the poor in Sussex, she joins in their smuggling. Now she is the master of the beach, risking her reputation and her life. One night off the coast of Bognor, Joanna encounters the menacing captain of a smuggling ship, never realizing he is the mysterious comte de Saintonge.
Can Donet resist the English vixen who entices him as no other woman? Will Lady Joanna risk all for an uncertain chance at love in the arms of the dashing Jean Donet?
~~~~~
Bognor, West Sussex, England, April 1784
Except for the small waves rushing to shore, hissing as they raced over the shingles, Bognor’s coast was eerily bereft of sound. Lady Joanna West hated the disquiet she always experienced before a smuggling run. Tonight, the blood throbbed in her veins with the anxious pounding of her heart, for this time, she would be dealing with a total stranger.
Would he be fair, this new partner in free trade? Or might he be a feared revenue agent in disguise, ready to cinch a hangman’s noose around her slender neck?
The answer lay just offshore, silhouetted against a cobalt blue sky streaked with gold from the setting sun: a black-sided ship, her sails lifted like a lady gathering up her skirts, poised to flee, waited for a signal.
Crouched behind a rock with her younger brother, Joanna hesitated, studying the ship. Eight gun ports marched across the side of the brig, making her wonder at the battles the captain anticipated that he should carry sixteen guns.
She and her men were unarmed. They would be helpless should he decide to cheat them, his barrels full of water instead of brandy, his tea no more than dried weeds.
It had been tried before.
“You are certain Zack speaks for this captain?” she asked Freddie whose dark auburn curls beneath his slouched hat made his boyish face appear younger than his seventeen years. But to one who knew him well, the set of his jaw hinted at the man he would one day become.
“I’ll fetch him,” Freddie said in a hushed tone, “and you can ask him yourself.” He disappeared into the shadows where her men waited beneath the trees.
Zack appeared, squatting beside her, a giant of a man with a scar on the left side of his face from the war. Like the mastiffs that guarded the grounds of her family’s estate, he was big and ugly, fierce with enemies, but gentle with those he was charged to protect.
“Young Frederick here says ye want to know about this ship, m’lady.” At her nod, Zack gazed toward the brig. “He used to come here regular with nary a con nor a cheat. He’s been gone awhile now. I heard he might have worked up some other business—royal business.” He rolled his massive shoulders in a shrug. “In my experience, a tiger don’t change his stripes. He’s a Frog, aye, but I trust the Frenchie’s one of us, a free trader still.”
She took in a deep breath of the salted air blowing onshore and let it out. “Good.” Zack’s assurance had been some comfort but not enough to end her concerns. What royal business? For tonight, she need not know. “Give the signal,” she directed her brother, “but I intend to see for myself if the cargo is what we ordered.”
Without seeking the position, Joanna had become the smugglers’ master of the beach, responsible for getting the cargo ashore and away to inland routes and London markets with no revenue man the wiser. She took seriously her role to assure the villagers got what they paid for. Their survival depended upon it.
Copyright © 2017 Regan Walker
You can follow the Donet series on Goodreads.
~~~
Regan is giving away a copy of To Tame the Wind.
She is curious…
Do you like historical romances with shipboard scenes?
~~~~~
Yes, I love historical romances with shipboard scenes, the book sounds great; thanks for the chance 🙂
jslbrown2009 at aol dot com
Hi, Lisa! Thanks for commenting. I’m so glad you like shipboard scenes. I think you’ll like my stories that have them.
Regan
totally! historical romance on ships always seem more exciting 🙂 thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by Erin! So glad you like romance set on ships. To me, they are very romantic. I hope you’ll try one of mine!
Regan
Honestly, I haven’t meet a Historical Romance I didn’t like. It is my favorite sib-genre to read. I love all settings.
Christina, As you might surmise, I love historical romance readers. Hope you’ll try one of mine!
Regan
I do like a shipboard setting. Very romantic.
I think so, too, Maureen. Do leave your email for the contest. And try one of my seafaring romances!
Regan
Historicals with shipboard romance is adventure, enthralling and captivating.
Hi, Anne. I’m delighted you like shipboard romance. Do leave your email so we can put you in the contest. And try one of my shipboard romances!
Regan
Thanks, Buried Under Romance, for having me on the blog! I’m so glad to know readers like shipboard scenes. Some last minute news: To Tame the Wind, my giveaway and book 1 in the Donet trilogy, has just won the 2017 International Book Awards in romance fiction!
Regan
I don’t mind them, but if anyone ends up in the water, I am done. Terrible fear of water in anything bigger than my kitchen sinks. :/
Lisa, you don’t have to worry. You’ll never end up in the drink in my stories!
For some reason, none of my comments or replies posted yesterday showed. So, I’m trying again. I thank all of you for commenting. Winner to be announced shortly.
Regan
Congratulations, Lisa Brown! You have won my book! I’ll be contacting you… And thanks to all who commented.
Regan