Reviewed by Francine:
The Royalist defeat at the Battle of Naseby (1645) is the opening scene to Traitor's Knot, and cannot by any stretch of imagination be quantified in death and injury alone. Miraculously alive, and determined to survive and fight another day, James Hart traverses a path of broken bodies whilst the stark crushing horror of it all tests his resolve in how to evade the triumphant Parliamentarian victors. With an episode of derring-do, alongside untold fear of detection, Hart's life and future has fallen to the hands of fate, and his reaching the Royalist stronghold of Bristol affords momentary relief. But nothing in times of war can be counted on as secure, and with a royal prince taking flight from the country what hope exists for eventual victory for the royal standard?
By chapter two, time has moved on to 1650, the time of The Interregnum, the year after the beheading of Charles I, the year his son Charles II, sets out to regain the throne of England. Here the reader meets Elizabeth Seton, the last but one of the Weymouth Setons' - a family of traitors as far as many are concerned. Thus life for a single and vulnerable young lady is thwart with dangers, and with a sister married to a Parliamentarian, Elizabeth's life is subject to their influence, and their unwanted intentions for her future. Brave but grief stricken with the death of her mother, stoical Elizabeth sets out to make a life for herself elsewhere, unknowing of what lies ahead in Warwickshire, or that she and Hart are destined to cross paths in strange circumstances. With a journey fraught with the dangers of highwayman and vagabonds, can her life become any more dangerous? Indeed it can, when the likes of a secret organisation eventually embroils her in its humanitarian bent to help those in need and undermine the enemy.
As time progresses and supporters of the King believe he will march south from Scotland, that battle will ensue, and all will be as it should be for the Royalist cause, James and Elizabeth are drawn one to the other, and as love blossoms war is nigh. As with all historical fiction, even romantic fiction, history itself dictates the outcome and the author adheres strictly to historical fact. In bearing a great passion for this particular period in history both as a reader and author, I thoroughly enjoyed James Hart and Elizabeth Seton's adventures and all the heart-rending experiences that befell them. Make no mistake this a swashbuckling romance set within the English Civil Wars, and a delightful step back in time.
