Honour Series

ORIGINAL Joan Vincent novels are “sweet” and average 60-75,000 words while the HONOUR books have at least one sexually explicit encounter and run 90-100,000 words. While there is humor, as in all my work, these books have more intricate plots of a darker strain with more sinister characters. Romance there is, but the intrigue and machinations of spy and counter spy are of equal importance.

In the Honour Series five British cavalry officers serve together in Spain and Portugal with General Sir John Moore. They find their lives, and those of their future brides, dangerously interwoven with the now adult Baron de la Croix’s pursuit of his former kidnaper, the amoral French master spy Donatien.

The fleur de lis disc marks one a member of de la Croix’s go-betweens. It can be a mark of life or death.

Prequels

The first regency I wrote was Bond of Honour. The Earl of Tretain rescues Juliane Perrill and her niece Leora and nephew Baron André de la Croix. Later in the book a kidnap attempt is foiled by the earl. The Curious Rogue takes up with a good friend of the earl, Comte Cavilon. André once again has a role.

Go forward twenty years and I am writing the book that became Honour’s Debt. In Chapter Five my villain is killed by a worse villain. Writing halted. My sister Vera brought up Bond and Curious in one of our conversations. When I examined them, it was like they had been written with the Honour series in mind. Eerie! But all the pieces were there—André, now an adult and a spy; Donatien, the French kidnapper and master spy, Tretain and his family. André’s friends and the cavalry officers complete the cast. Let the adventures begin!

A BOND OF HONOUR

Lady Juliane Perrill was determined to practice whatever deceit was necessary to escape France, to bring her orphaned niece and nephew to safety in England. When fate forced her to cast her lot with the Earl of Tretain, they became a “family”. To all appearances, they were husband and wife. Juliane was safe. Lord Adrian had promised to protect her. Could he? Would he?

The road was long and dangerous; the country aflame with revolution. But most frightening of all was this dangerous charade that thrust Juliane into the arms of the one man she could neither resist–nor trust.

THE CURIOUS ROGUE

In the dark of night he leaped into her coach, swept her into his arms, and kissed her with a fervor that haunted her still.

But he had vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared. How could Elizabeth now marry a powdered fop like the Comte de Cavilon? Elizabeth’s plain features concealed a proud beauty. Her sharp tongue hid a woman of daring and wit . . . a woman who longed for a rogue’s passionate kiss even as she was drawn to a dandy’s curiously tender ways.

Soon she would be forced to choose. Was there more to love than met the eye?

Honour Series

Honour’s Debt: Book One

Maddie Vincouer conceals her father’s death in 1809 after promising to save her family from Cousin Sanford’s greed. A Riding Officer’s persistence endangers this pretence with his demands to meet her father. Chance reveals her secret to the cruel French spy Donatien.
Matters go completely awry when Maddie aids a wounded “free trader.” Unknown to her, the free trader is Major Quentin Bellaport. He has accepted an assignment to pursue a spy in order to meet and repay the debt owed for his life to Maddie’s cousin Jamey by wedding her. Sanford’s appearance and demand Maddie marry him, the Riding Officer’s hunt for the free trader, Bellaport’s pursuit of the French spy, and he and Maddie falling in love hasten a final confrontation between all. Maddie faces a funeral, a wedding, kidnappings, and a deadly encounter on a moonlit beach. In a desperate attempt to save her Bellaport enlists the help of Baron de la Croix and rolls the dice on the fate of all their lives as he pays Honour’s Debt.

Honour’s Choice: Book Two

1809 England. Hadleigh Tarrant joins in the hunt for government bullion thieves. Captured and tortured by their leader Donatien, Hadleigh is left to die.
Sarah, Lady Edgerton, a middle-aged widow, nurses the critically injured Hadleigh when he is found near her home despite the danger to her reputation.
Their hearts choose each other, but Hadleigh is haunted by the tragedy of his parent’s marriage and fears that love will cause him pain worse than that of any torture. Sarah, trapped by the years between them and secrets that would turn him from her forever, tries to hide her love and do what is best for Hadleigh by giving him up.
Donatien, the malicious French spy reappears determined to purloin military secrets. He is also intent upon a revenge that threatens Sarah and Hadleigh’s growing love and their very lives. Hadleigh must unmask the spy before he and Sarah can decide between dishonour and Honour’s Choice.

HONOUR’S COMPROMISE: BOOK THREE

Lt. James Vincouer, seared first by her beauty and then by her hauteur, brands Cecilia Mayer-Boden the “Glacier.” A year later Jamey meets a Spanish beauty. whose passion reminds him too vividly of Cecilia.
Cecilia, intent upon concealing her family’s tragic secret, crosses swords with Jamey to fend off her growing love for him. Though tortured by her independence, Jamey cannot stay away. When Cecilia’s life is threatened by a Spanish counteragent, Jamey’s intervention results in he and Cecilia’s battle-fraught marriage.
When family illness forces the newlyweds to travel to England desire weaves a spell that awakens hope for their love. But the spy Donatien awaits, determined to seize Cecilia and the information she secretly carries. When she flees to prevent an attack on Jamey, the French master spy captures her. Aided by Donatien’s arch enemy, Baron de la Croix, Jamey searches for Cecilia hoping for one last rescue and the chance to win her. But Donatien means to succeed and there may be no time for Honour’s Compromise.

HONOUR’S REDEMPTION: BOOK FOUR

Captain Lucian Merristorm continues a guilt ridden downward spiral when unfairly forced to sell out of the 15th Hussars. After a night out with a man who harbors a secret vendetta against him, a heavily drugged Lucian regains consciousness in a coach halfway to Yorkshire. Lucian, who sought death in vain on the battlefields of Spain, is furious to find it has eluded him once again.

Ruth Clayton bartered a post for her father in far away Yorkshire after the loss of his preferment due to failing memory. When Lucian is thrown into the mail coach with them in London Ruth is appalled by her attraction to the wastrel. In Whitby she takes a badly beaten Lucian into the vicarage. Her attraction turns to love despite his every effort to turn it to disgust.

Unknown to both their arrival in Whitby thrusts a spoke in a French spy’s plan to smuggle weapons and gold concealed in tunnels beneath the vicarage to France. When Lucian’s enemy unites with the spy, Lucian faces the bitter reality that death may triumph even as it becomes the last thing he seeks. Ruth must reach deep into her heart to offer him Honour’s Redemption.