AustLit

'1629 A.D. -Gabriel Hardacre is one of three orphan brothers with a talent for acrobatics and performing.

'It’s how they make their living… mostly. If a few jewels and trinkets make it into their hands from time to time… well, a man has to eat after all. Their haunt is the Wharf Street Tavern at the docks in Barnstaple.

'Perspicacity Glenwood, known as Cassie to her friends, is a forthright and determined young woman. She runs a small school that teaches the children of the docks – as well as some of the adults – who want to learn to read and write.

'One of her older students is the handsome Gabriel, but a burgeoning romance between them is thwarted when Cassie receives word that an ailing aunt in Ireland needs her care.

'The voyage across the Irish Sea is a short one and ought to be without peril, but the evil Dutch pirate Jan Janszoon controls Lundy Island just outside the Bristol Channel, picking off ships for their bounty of goods – and people to sell as slaves in North Africa.

'Gabriel learns from a mysterious man, who simply calls himself de Wolfe, that Cassie’s ship has been taken. The man’s wife is also among the captives and he’s putting together ‘a wolf pack’ to destroy Janszoon’s base of operations for good.

'The mission will be hazardous, it will be deadly – and it has to be done within the next two weeks before Cassie and the other captives are taken out of reach forever.

'Can Gabriel save the woman he’s fallen in love with?'

Source : publisher's blurb