Persephone

The latest entry in Julian Stockwin's Thomas Kydd sea stories opens in November 1807. Napoleon's forces are moving through Iberia, and Captain Sir Thomas Kydd is ordered to Lisbon to help the Portuguese royal household leave before the French arrive. Amid the confusion in the threatened city, he runs into Persephone Lockwood, an admiral's daughter whom he knew in earlier years and whose spirit he still admires. The royal party is bound for Brazil, far from Persephone's home in England, so Kydd believes his second chance has slipped away.

He soon learns that Persephone has another suitor. To have any hope of winning her, Kydd must move among the aristocracy and royalty of London, a world that brings duties of its own. The Prince of Wales gives him temporary command of the Royal Yacht. On the passage to Yarmouth, Kydd realises that French privateers are shadowing the ship, and the danger of a prince of the blood falling into enemy hands demands the most skilful seamanship he can muster.