‘And again and again and again for the rest of our lives, my love. One thing you learn as a naval officer is to take every opportunity when on leave.’
His voice became muffled as he slid down, trailing kisses over the curve of her hip bone.
‘Oh, yes, my love. Please, every opportunity…’ And Clemence closed her eyes and surrendered to Nathan and to love.
Afterword
In 1817, when this book is set, the heyday of the Caribbean buccaneers was long since over. But there still remained a dangerous number of pirates, freebooters and the maritime equivalent of footpads to harass the rich trade of the islands, and the government invested considerable resources on suppressing their activities. Red Matthew McTiernan and his crew are a composite of some of these unromantic and dangerous characters.
The book I found most useful in researching THE PIRATICAL MISS RAVENHURST was Lady Nugent’s Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 (Institute of Jamaica 4th ed. 1966), and I have followed Lady Nugent’s return voyage on HMS Theseus for Orion’s route and timings almost exactly.
The fan that Nathan finds in Weymouth and gives to Clemence is real, and I found it in a country auction when I was already writing the book. It seemed such a spooky coincidence that not only was I writing about a heroine called Clemence, but that the virtues of the man destined for her on the fan so exactly matched Nathan’s, that I could not resist including it.
I am indebted to Historical Romance author Joanna Maitland for the translation of the difficult eighteenth-century French verses.
The dance La Pistole—speed-dating for the ton as it struck me at the time—I learned at the Victoria & Albert Museum’s wonderful Regency Evening in June 2007.