To Tame the Wind (Agents of the Crown Book 0) (32 page)

Rye

A few days later, after a dinner with Claire’s father at the
Mermaid Inn, Simon and Claire bid Donet goodbye on the wharf.

The Frenchman embraced his daughter. “When the peace treaty
is signed, you will see me again.” He held her away from him, smiling. “Perhaps
I will come for the christening of that son who will bear my name.”

Claire attempted a smile but, faltering, began to weep. “Oh,
Papa, I will miss you so.”

“I will take care of her, sir,” Simon assured him.

Donet nodded, looking a bit careworn, Simon thought. Even a
pirate could become emotional at having to say goodbye to his only daughter.
Leaving her in a country that was not his own had to render the parting more
difficult.

Bequel waited next to the skiff that would take Donet to
la
Reine Noire
, anchored in the harbor just off shore, still bearing the name
Blessing
.

“I will write, Papa,” she said through her tears.

Simon shook Donet’s hand before drawing Claire close and
kissing her temple.

“It will be all right, sweetheart.”

Donet walked toward his quartermaster. Just before Donet
stepped into the skiff, he turned and raised a hand in farewell.

Claire waved to him. “Papa… ” she said in a forlorn tone.
“What will happen to him?”

Simon turned her into his chest and with one finger under
her chin, raised her face to his. Her eyes were troubled. He pressed a gentle
kiss to her lips.

“You need not worry for your father, sweetheart. He will be
fine.” He kissed her forehead and then turned her so they could watch Donet
settle into the skiff, looking toward his brig-sloop. “I have a feeling his
story is just beginning.”

And so it is.

Not too long after Simon and Claire were married, on
November 30, 1782, the United States and Great Britain signed the preliminary
articles of peace to end America’s War for Independence. By their terms,
America received acceptable boundaries (greatly expanding the young country’s
territory), fishing rights and the right to navigation of the Mississippi
River. The British acknowledged America’s independence and promised to withdraw
their troops. In exchange, Britain received little except America’s agreement
to honor its debts and a vague promise that Congress would recommend the states
give fair treatment to the Loyalists.

On April 11, 1783, Congress officially declared an end to
the first successful colonial war of independence against a European power.
Though the preliminary articles did not become the formal Treaty of Paris until
September 3, 1783, America had become a sovereign nation.

As for Claire and Simon, they were to have four strapping
sons, the first of whom would be born in 1783. Each of their sons would have
French and English given names. Their first-born son, Jean Nicholas Powell,
named after his pirate grandfather, became a sea captain like his father. Nick
is introduced in
Against the Wind
and his story is told in
Wind Raven
.
Sir Martin Edward Powell, the second son, became a spy in Paris and England. He
is introduced in
Racing with the Wind
and his story is told in
Against
the Wind
. Lastly, Claire and Simon had two twin boys, Robert Pierre
(“Robbie”) and Nash Etienne (“Nash”) Powell, whose story will be told in
A
Secret Scottish Christmas
where they vie for the love of a Scottish lass.
You can get an idea of it from
The Holly & The Thistle
.

As the ending of
To Tame the Wind
indicates, the dark
and dashing Jean Donet’s story is just beginning. If all goes according to
plan,
Echo in the Wind
should be released in 2016. It will be set in
France in the years before the French Revolution.
To Tame the Wind
is
thus both the prequel to the Agents of the Crown trilogy and book 1 of the
Donet duology.

I hope you enjoyed my story of the American Revolution from
a different perspective. To me, this time in the history of England, France and
America is fascinating, but rather than set my story in America, I chose to set
it in England, France and the English Channel.

In London, the War for Independence was known as “the
American War”. However, some members of Parliament argued it should be called
“the French War” because of France’s immense assistance to America. That France
made possible America’s victory cannot be doubted. It cost the French much to
aid America, and the debt France incurred on America’s behalf would set the
stage for the French Revolution. But for the money and forces contributed by
France, America might not have prevailed. According to Benjamin Franklin, our
wily commissioner in Paris, France was having difficulty meeting its own
expenses, “yet it has advanced six millions to save the credit of ours.”

There were, of course, more players involved in the peace
negotiations in Paris than my story would indicate. A few years earlier, John
Adams had been charged with the mission of negotiating a treaty of peace with
Britain. But the French did not approve of Adams' appointment and, on the
insistence of the comte de Vergennes, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John
Jay (America’s minister to Spain), and Henry Laurens were appointed to work
with Adams, although Jefferson did not go to Europe, Laurens was posted to the
Dutch Republic, and much of the time, Adams was not in Paris. It was Benjamin
Franklin who worked tirelessly to win the respect of Vergennes and the purse of
France.

Franklin also worked to gain the freedom of American
prisoners in England. As my story suggests, they were treated abysmally and
died at an appalling rate. Hoping to gain British prisoners to exchange,
Franklin issued letters of marque to three vessels that became American
privateers: the
Black Prince
, the
Black Princess
and the
Fearnot
.
Like the fictional
la Reine Noire
, the
Black Queen
, they were
French-owned, but unlike Jean Donet’s ship, they had American captains and
Irish and American crews.

Privateers—British, French and American—played an important
role in America’s War for Independence. Unlike pirates, privateers acted under
cover of government sanction (a “letter of marque”) and generally behaved
according to a code of rules. While they often sailed with several sets of
false papers and the flags of a half-dozen nations and lied when they spoke to
other ships, they were generally civil to the women they captured at sea.

There were many spies in Paris during the time of the
American War, including Dr. Edward Bancroft, secretary to the American
diplomatic mission, dubbed “the Scribe” in my story. At one time, he had worked
for Franklin spying on the British, but when Franklin took up his role in Paris
as an American commissioner, the British recruited Bancroft to spy on Franklin,
which he did.

Bancroft’s missives, written under the name “Edward Edward”
using secret ink and transmitted via a bottle left in a tree in Paris, were not
discovered until seventy years after his death when the British government
provided access to its diplomatic archives. It is said that through his
messages, George III knew of the French-American Treaty of Alliance just two
days after it was signed. Bancroft’s final work as “Edward Edward” lasted from
the start of peace negotiations in the spring of 1782 to the signing of the
preliminary peace accord on November 30 of that year.

William Eden, another historic figure, was the head of the
British spies in Europe during the time of my story, probably overseeing a
small group of intelligence collectors for Lord Suffolk. In 1789, Eden,
rewarded for his many services to the Crown, was made 1
^st
Baron
Auckland.

I chose to begin my story in Saint-Denis, which today is a
part of the city of Paris, to tell of the good work of t
he
Ursuline nuns who, in addition to
vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience, added a "fourth vow" of dedication to teaching. I knew
nothing about them before I began my research but was impressed with all I
learned. They became f
amous for their education of girls, from
both
noble and poor families. Élise was one of the latter, of course. In Ireland,
they also educated boys like the cook McGinnes, who is a young man in this
story, but is an older man (and perhaps a better cook) in
Wind Raven
.

Though they generally educated girls younger than the
teenaged Claire, by special arrangement, her papa was allowed to leave her in
the charge of Sister Augustin until she reached maturity.

Sister Augustin is the Mother Superior in my story, but she
would have been more properly called “Sister Saint-Augustin” as was the
Ursuline tradition in France at the time. Both Sister Augustin and Sister
Angélique were modeled after real Ursuline nuns.

As my story indicates, the students in the Ursuline Convent
would have received an excellent education. Though Claire was a wild child at
heart, she would one day become the very proper lady she was raised to be, much
loved by her English husband. (You may recall the conversation in
Wind Raven
where Nate, thirty-five years later, tells Capt. Jean Nicholas Powell, Claire’s
oldest son, about his mother.)

I invite you to visit my Pinterest board for
To Tame the
Wind
:
http://www.pinterest.com/reganwalker123/to-tame-the-wind-by-regan-walker/
.
There, you can view maps and pictures of the coastal ports, the characters as I
see them, and even the convent in Saint-Denis as it is today. It’s my research
in pictures!

If you want to read the stories of Claire and Simon’s sons,
you can find them in the Agents of the Crown trilogy. For those of you who have
read
Racing with the Wind
, did you note that Lord Ormond’s father, the
Duke of Albany, was a guest at the soirée Cornelia had for Claire in London in
To
Tame the Wind
?

I love to hear from readers. Contact me via my website,
www.reganwalkerauthor.com
, and I
promise to answer. There you can also sign up for my newsletter.

Coming next in 2015… I am going back to the 11
^th
century for
Rogue Knight
, book 2 in the Medieval Warriors series, Sir
Geoffroi’s story.

Bestselling author Regan Walker loved to write stories as a
child, particularly those about adventure-loving girls, but by the time she got
to college more serious pursuits took priority. One of her professors
encouraged her to pursue the profession of law, which she did. Years of serving
clients in private practice and several stints in high levels of government
gave her a love of international travel and a feel for the demands of the
“Crown” on its subjects. Hence her romance novels often involve a demanding
sovereign who taps his subjects for “special assignments”. In each of her
novels, there is always real history and real historic figures.

Regan lives in San Diego with her golden retriever, Link,
whom she says inspires her every day to relax and smell the roses.

www.ReganWalkerAuthor.com

France 1782…AN INNOCENT IS TAKEN

All Claire Donet knew was the world inside the convent walls
in Saint-Denis. She had no idea her beloved papa was a pirate. But when he
seized Simon Powell's schooner, the English privateer decided to take the thing
his enemy held most dear... her.

A BATTLE IS JOINED

The waters between France and England roil with the clashes
of Claire's father and her captor as the last year of the American Revolution
rages on the sea, spies lurk in Paris and Claire’s passion for the English
captain rises.