Captain Wentworth's Persuasion (57 page)

“Come lie with me,” she muttered.

“I will bathe and join you,” he assured her.

Sometime later, Frederick slid his long frame under the blanket. Anne slept, so he simply warmed her backside by cuddling next to her. The fragrance of her hair wafted over him as he relaxed into the familiarity of her body. He removed the strands of hair from about her face; seeing the thick lashes resting on the rise of her cheeks, Frederick realized the impact of the moment: In an instant, he had fallen in love with Anne Elliot, and, decisively, he won her. “The children are a testament to our love,” he whispered to her sleeping form.

She rolled over into his embrace, snuggling into his chest. “Umm,” she moaned.

“I look into your face,” he murmured as his lips brushed against her cheek, “and I see God’s plan at work. In His infinite wisdom, He brought me to your doorstep twice.”

She snaked her arm up over his shoulder. “Do you plan to talk all evening?” her lips barely moved. “I am sleepy, and I hoped you would skip the adorations and go straight to the kissing part.”

“I can be as silent as the lambs.”

“Prove it,” she challenged.“Just prove it.”

When the Treaty of Paris was signed on November 20, 1815, Napoleon was already in exile on the tiny South Atlantic island of Saint Helena. Forced to accept the defeat of his Imperial Guard at Waterloo, Napoleon fled first to France, leaving behind coaches loaded with gold and jewelry and his private papers—his personal fortune. Reaching Paris on June 21, 1815, he still refused to admit his failure; on June 22, the Chamber of Representatives demanded that Bonaparte abdicate.

Even with his renunciation, Napoleon did not give up hopes of escaping the British and Prussian armies. On July 8, he tried to escape to the United States by boarding the French frigate
La Salle
; however, the English warship
Bellerophon
blocked the French emperor’s escape. But Napoleon had contacted more than one ship and asked it to prepare to receive him. Still smarting from the War of 1812, where British embargos nearly destroyed American naval commerce, some French-born Americans reportedly sympathized with Bonaparte and tried to help him escape from the Duke of Wellesley’s justice.

Captain Sir Thomas, Lord Cochrane, held radical ideas, in the form of saturation bombing and chemical warfare, on how the British should conduct naval warfare. A decorated hero, Lord Cochrane advanced quickly through naval ranks. Napoleon himself dubbed Cochrane “The Sea Wolf.”

However, Cochrane fell out of favor when he first became consumed by the 1809 court-martial of Admiral James Gambier. Cochrane’s inability to properly express himself in a public debate forum played out during the trial, allowing the general public to see his “imperfections.” To complicate matters, he earned political
enemies with his election to Parliament. A “tarnished star,” Cochrane eventually went to jail, charged with illegally manipulating the London Stock Exchange in 1814.

An interesting fact about Cochrane’s career was his plan to conduct chemical warfare. Even the Prince Regent approved of Cochrane’s plan, and Whitehall considered the merits of it—turning it down only when British military leaders considered that the enemy might reciprocate with a like technology.

In Cochrane’s plan, a hollowed-out ship’s hulk would be layered with clay, scrap metal, a thick layer of powder, rows of shells, and animal carcasses.This “loaded” ship would be sent among the enemy vessels and then exploded—sending deadly mortar in a circular path. Other seemingly empty ships would be layered with clay—and then charcoal—and then sulfur, creating a floating stink bomb. The “noxious effluvia,” or toxic, clouds would quickly subdue the opposition.

In 1818, released from jail, Cochrane left England and became a mercenary, not returning home until King William IV pardoned him in 1829. He continued to purport his ideas, even to Queen Victoria during the Crimean War. The details of Cochrane’s plans never became public, and, with the end of the Crimean War, all thoughts of radical warfare were sealed away in the record rooms of Whitehall. Ironically, ten years after the files were unsealed, soldiers faced yellow sulfuric clouds of mustard gas during World War I.

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DARCY’S PASSIONS:
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
RETOLD THROUGH HIS EYES
Regina Jeffers, $14.95

Profound and amusing, this novel captures the style and humor of Jane Austen’s novel while turning the entire story on its head. It presents Darcy as a man in turmoil. His duty to his family and estate demand he choose a woman of high social standing. But what his mind tells him to do and what his heart knows to be true are two different things.After rejecting Elizabeth as being unworthy, he soon discovers he’s in love with her. But the independent Elizabeth rejects his marriage proposal. Devastated, he must search his soul and transform himself into the man she can love and respect.

 

 

DARCY’S TEMPTATION: A SEQUEL TO JANE
AUSTEN’S
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
Regina Jeffers, $14.95

By changing the narrator to Mr. Darcy,
Darcy’s Temptation
turns one of the most beloved literary love affairs of all time on its head, even as it presents new plot twists and fresh insights into the characters’ personalities and motivations. Four months into the new marriage, all seems well when Elizabeth discovers she is pregnant. However, a family conflict that requires Darcy’s personal attention arises because of Georgiana’s involvement with an activist abolitionist. On his return journey from a meeting to address this issue, a much greater danger arises. Darcy is attacked on the road and, when left helpless from his injuries, he finds himself in the care of another woman.

VAMPIRE DARCY’S DESIRE:A
PRIDE AND
PREJUDICE
ADAPTATION
Regina Jeffers, $14.95