Love in the time of
revolution
France 1794
Zoé Ariane Donet was in
love with love until she met the commander of the royalist army fighting the
revolutionaries tearing apart France. When the dashing young general is killed,
she joins the royalist cause, rescuing émigrés fleeing France.
One man watches over her: Frederick West, the brother of an
English earl, who has known Zoé since she was a precocious ten-year-old child. At sixteen, she promised
great beauty, the flower of French womanhood about to bloom. Now, four years
later, as Robespierre’s Terror seizes France by the throat, Zoé has become a beautiful temptress Freddie vows to
protect with his life.
But English spies don’t live long
in revolutionary France.
Excerpt from A Fierce
Wind by Regan Walker
Suddenly
looking impatient, her uncle turned to the nuns. “We must make haste; my ship
awaits and, by now, I fear my quartermaster is cursing me under his breath.”
They
were nearly to the quay when two soldiers in the blue and white uniforms of the
republican army stepped out of the fog and into their path.
Her
uncle muttered a curse.
Beneath
his bicorne, the fat soldier displayed plump red cheeks and a bushy brown
mustache. The cold eyes of his companion matched his thin lips, curved into a
cruel smile, as his gaze roved over Zoé and the younger nun. “Eh bien… what have we here? One man with three
women? That seems hardly fair when, as you can see, we servants of the
revolution have none.”
The
soldier with the mustache laughed, one hand on his ponderous belly, the other
on his long musket. “Surely you can share, citoyen.”
From
their leering eyes, Zoé did not put rape past either of them. Rumors abounded
of the soldiers’ abuse of the local women. The thought of one of these touching
her made Zoé’s skin crawl.
The
younger nun gasped and was stilled by the hand of the older on her shoulder. Zoé
stepped in front of them and slid her hand into the small slit in her full
skirt to reach the sharp knife strapped to her thigh.
“Ah,
mes amis,” said her uncle, adopting the common
speech, “on another occasion, if these were but stray cats, I would be happy to
invite you to join my party but, alas, this is family business. These are my sisters and my wife, women under my
protection.”
His
tone hinted of velvet laid over steel and the red-cheeked soldier did not fail
to notice. The smile faded from his corpulent face as his fingers nervously
played with the end of his mustache.
Seeing
his companion falter, the thin-lipped one aimed his musket at her uncle. “You
will share, as I have said, or reap the consequences, mon ami.”
If
the republican soldier thought to intimidate Jean Donet, he picked the wrong
man. Her uncle had a fierce reputation known to many in France.
Zoé
was tempted to inform these idiots, who played at being soldiers, they were
dealing with the great capitaine of
la Reine Noire, the Black Queen, but she held her tongue, knowing her uncle could
swiftly deal them a deathblow if he chose.
“Je ne pense pas,” he said to the soldiers. “Not
tonight.” Before they realized what was happening, her uncle slipped his knife
from the sheath at his wrist and sent the deadly blade hurtling through the air
and into the neck of the thin-lipped one. His eyes bulged and he made a gagging
sound as he clutched his throat, spurting blood, and dropped to the ground.
Zoé
did not even blink. Behind her, Sister Augustin exclaimed, “Mon Dieu!”
The
rotund soldier began to back away, apparently forgetting he held a musket.
Her
uncle drew a pistol from the pocket of his frock coat and pointed it at the
mustached soldier. “Go now and you will live. The streets of Granville are full
of enemies and your comrade did not see the blade coming, d’accord ? Neither did you see the one
who killed him.”
The
soldier nodded slowly and then, as if coming out of a trance, turned and ran.
“You
have killed him!” Sister Augustin scolded, coming around Zoé and bending over
the soldier bleeding profusely from his neck.
The
young Sister Angélique, apparently more pragmatic, knelt beside the man and
swept her hand over his face, closing his eyes as she murmured a prayer for his
departed soul.
Zoé’s
uncle retrieved his knife, wiping the blade clean on the soldier’s uniform.
“This is war, Sister, and, in war, to hesitate is to accept defeat. That I will
never do.”
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FYPFVRL
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FYPFVRL
MEET THE AUTHOR
Regan
Walker is an award-winning, Amazon bestselling author of Regency, Georgian and
Medieval romances. After years of serving clients in private practice and
several stints in high levels of government, she developed a feel for the
demands of the “Crown”. Hence her stories often feature a demanding sovereign
who taps his subjects for special assignments. Each of her novels includes real
history and real historical figures as characters. And, of course, adventure
and love.
EE: Tell us about your new book, A Fierce Wind. Where and when is it set?
Regan: It’s
set in 1794 in England, France and on the Isle of Guernsey during the French
Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
EE: Oh, my. That must have been a challenge. How did you do it?
Regan: I began by diving into that period in history. My desk was
littered with books on the French Revolution. So much information, I was on
overload. Trying to find an entry point for my story took weeks. Finally, I
found something rarely spoken about… a strong resistance movement in the
northwest provinces of France.
EE: What about your hero and heroine? What side were they on?
Regan: The heroine, Zoé Donet, is French. Initially, she supports
the revolution. But when it turns
bloody, she becomes a royalist aligned with the resistance. The hero, Frederick
West, is English, a spy for the British Crown. Both are aristocrats who leave
behind the trappings of their place in society to support the rebels and, in
Freddie’s case, help England win the war. Since my readers pretty much handed
me the hero and heroine (they are minor characters in the 2nd book
of the trilogy and my readers wanted them to get together in this book), it’s a
“friends to lovers” story. And that
was a challenge, too.
EE: Lots of action?
Regan: Oh, yes. Swordfights, ambushes, murder and battles on the
English Channel and in the Atlantic. The reader will not be bored.
EE: You write seafaring romance, yes? Is this one of them?
Regan: I do and yes, it is. All of the stories in the Donet Trilogy
of which this book is a part, feature sea captains, scenes set on ships and
battles at sea.
EE: Will any real historical figures show up?
Regan: Lots, actually. Naval captains on both sides of the war, a
despicable French general, a few real English spymasters, the young general who
leads the rebellion in the northwest provinces, Captain Victor (a female who
fights with the rebels), William Pitt the Younger (England’s Prime Minister)
and the author of the Terror himself, Robespierre. Some of my readers have
trouble telling the fictional from the real and that makes me happy. I want it
to be seamless.
EE: What sound or noise do you love?
Regan: Ocean waves and falling rain. You’ll hear them both in this
story.
EE: Do you have a favorite movie?
Regan: There are many but one of my very favorites is The Last of the Mohicans. It’s a
romance, you know, as are most blockbusters when you think of it. Most of the
movies I like feature some important time in history. Same for the TV series I
watch.
EE: Be honest, when reading...do you put yourself in the
heroine’s role?
Regan: I think I must, but then I’m often in the head of the hero,
too. The story won’t be compelling to readers unless you convince them these
people are worth caring about.
EE: Is writing or story-telling easier for you?
Regan: When I first began writing, I wouldn’t have been able to
tell you but once the reviews came in, it was clear I am a storyteller. And I
like it that way. I want to pull my readers in, to make them a part of the
world I create. To make them never want to leave it.
EE: What’s something you’d like to tell your fans?
Regan: I want them to know they are the reason I write my stories.
If I can make their lives happy and give them hope for love then I’ve done my
job. If they learn something along the way about history, well, that’s gravy.
EE: What’s coming next?
Regan: A Regency… Rogue’s
Holiday. It’s book 5 in the Agents of the Crown series, set in 1820 in
London and Brighton… as the Prince Regent becomes king and a band of rebels
seeks to murder the leaders of the government.
A Fierce Wind is
book 3 in the Donet Trilogy; today's giveaway will be book #1, To Tame the Wind.
Question for readers: What are your favorite time periods in history for historical romances and why?
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