British Navy Captain Neville Burton’s life takes a strange twist. It was 1806, and Napoleon Bonaparte’s ambitions of conquering the known world were well under way; he’d stopped the Russians and destroyed the Austrian Empire. He did not expect help from a lone man who was seeking to bring him an important hostage.
At sea, Britain’s ‘Atlantic Campaign’ was unfolding to stop Napoleon’s attempts at conquering the oceans. Their wide-spread nets didn’t catch all enemy ships however, so the French Fleets under Admiral Linois in the Pacific and Admiral Willaumez in the Caribbean were doing considerable damage.
Burton’s plans to wed Jamaican rum heiress Marion Stillwater go on hold when he is ordered to join his frigate La Desiree with British Admiral Warren’s efforts to stop the French. The aftermath of a consequential battle leaves him in London waiting for further orders, while his fiancée takes the opportunity of his absence to establish a Stillwater Rum warehouse in Baltimore. Commanding a Royal Navy ship in the Napoleonic War is not Burton’s only source of peril, however. The timing of his visit to England coincides with the abduction of a dear friend. Although first being suspected of the deed, Whitehall overturns their initial distrust and assigns him the task of recovering the hostage.
Burton calls on several past acquaintances to engage in a plan to thwart the kidnapper, stealing into France and acting more like a secret agent than a navy captain. Once in, they must still manage to get out of the enemy country, which again calls for his naval skills. Escaping aboard a small French coastal ship poses new problems. Is fomenting a mutiny the only strategy available to cross the English channel? Will he re-unite with his lover and fiancée, Marion Stillwater? Do the games of intrigue save the hostage?