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BLACK WILLIAM by Robert Neill

BLACK WILLIAM

By

Publisher: Doubleday

Rebel Heiress, Traitor's Moon and The Elegant Witch showed this author's convincing way with history, politics and religion and this latest works the vein further. The time is 1714; the setting, the Newcastle area of England; the plot is backgrounded by an attempted uprising for the Pretender, James Stuart. Mally Lawley incurs her aunt's displeasure in London and is sent to her uncle John, in the care of her aunt's husband's brother, Black William. John and his cronies are Highflyers, deep in treasonable plans for James' return; they are also most unfriendly to Black William, who, ready to help Mally, warns her of the danger Uncle John is incurring. More trouble brews with the arrival of Captain Marriott, now traveling as Colonel Storm, with orders for more active participation and Mally, who had lost her heart to him in London, faces loyalty or love. But William's prescience -- and ability to manipulate events, prove Marriott-Storm more devoted to his king across the water than Mally and show Mally a safer --and happier -- future with his son Richard. Romantic adventuring that is sturdier than most.