Publisher's Synopsis
'The Duchess and The General' will meet after a lifetime of separation. Christine Patterson once captured and enslaved by the Abenaki Indians. She is now in England and has risen to the rank of Duchess of Ramapo. Robert 'Pip' Patterson became known as one of the best frontiersmen in the northern colonies. During the American Revolution, he was chief of scouts and rose to the rank of General. After the war, he was Minister of Indian Affairs for President Washington. Now, with John Adams as the new president, he is sent to bolster relations with England and to negotiate with the French Post-Revolutionary governments to end the 'Quasi War'.
His reunion with Christine was very heartwarming and too long overdue. However, they had changed in their political views. Christine had become an aristocrat, the very thing Pip fought against in the American Revolution. Pip realized how far apart they had grown since childhood in the backwoods of America. He would leave London on friendly terms with Christine. However, Pip's American anti-aristocratic views left Christine with mixed feelings about her station in life. Pip continues his mission to Paris as the Envoy from President Adams. Pip's son James asks to go to a monastery in Italy to search for his soul and find his true self. He is a troubled young man. Viika Hendriksen, Christine's lifelong friend and owner of merchant ships from Amsterdam, would transport Pip, his wife Marie, and daughter Diane to Le Havre, France. She would then take James to Italy on a dangerous voyage that will take them through ship-killer storms, pirates and her bed. They safely handed James over to the care of Andrew Bortniak, a family friend in Siena. He would take James to the Badia Monastery, north of Florence. James would spend two years in silent obedience, working in a vineyard doing penance through a spiritual retreat. Viika spent those next two years in Port Royal, Jamaica, visiting her friend and partner Bea Yaw, better known as Lady Bea, 'The Black Widow' privateer. She would join Bea in several privateering escapades against French shipping. Time will tell how these characters win or lose in their personal quests.