Louisbourg: The Novel

Marie Gauthier is taken from her ancestral Acadian home by the English. As a prisoner with the women and children of her village, she survives a wreck of the British warship ferrying the Acadians to their diaspora. Along with other survivors, Marie makes a difficult overland journey to the safety of Louisbourg. Taken in by the governoras wife, she makes a desperate search for her lost family. Marie suffers with French citizens and soldiers under the British siege of the fortress. At Government House she finds an unlikely attraction to a young Scottish emissary of the British, rivaling her attraction to French Brevet Captain Renau. Born under a sentence of death, Charles MacGregor could never set foot in Scotland. With no money and little opportunity, he joins the British Navy. The Navy of 1750 cares little for a manas background; it cares only if a man is an able sailor and brave in battle. At Sea, on a British frigate, MacGregor proves he is one of the best. Educated at Versailles, his fluent French wins him an appointment as emissary to the governor of Louisbourg. While delivering surrender demands, he finds a strange attraction to Marie Gauthier. Step back in time to the days of wooden warships and life in the besieged fortress of Louisbourg...