Precarious Game of Hide and Seek

Celia Martin #5

by Celia Martin

Lady Rowena Crossly is determined to rescue her daughter, Cecily, from the Cromwellian Cecily has been forced to marry even does she have to shoot the man, but luck is on her side. Haspel, the Cromwellian carting her daughter away, has been stopped by a gang of highwaymen. They help Rowena rescue her daughter, but then she and Cecily must travel with the highwaymen if they are to stay out of Haspel's clutches. Needing to don various disguises and adopt numerous different names, they bounce from one adventure to another. Being ever in the presence of the lead highwayman, Nathaniel D'Arcy, has Rowena beginning to fear her growing feelings for the dashing highwayman. With a warrant on her head for being in league with highwaymen, Rowena faces an uncertain future.

339 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 22, 2020

About the author

Celia Martin is a former Social Studies/English teacher. Her love of history dates back to her earliest memories when she sat enthralled as her grandparents recounted tales of their past, As a child, she delighted in the make-believe games that she played with her siblings and friends, but as she grew up and had to put aside the games, she found she could not set aside her imagination. So, Celia took up writing stories for her own entertainment. She is an avid reader. She loves getting lost in a romance, but also enjoys good mysteries, exciting adventure stories, and fact-loaded historical documentaries. When her husband retired and they moved from California to the glorious Kitsap Peninsula in the state of Washington, she was able to begin a full-fledged writing career. Celia and her husband have returned to CA to be near the grand kids, but she is still writing and still loving it. When not engaged in writing, Celia enjoys travel, keeping fit, and listening to a variety of different music styles

Reviews

[Linda Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Celia Martin's books are always fun to read, and I have been buying multiple copies of each book so I can send them to siblings and cousins. That way, my copy stays on my shelf. "Precarious Game of Hide and Seek" was as rewarding a read as her other novels, and I learned as much history and culture as I have reading her earlier books. I love her strong, intelligent, brave, and, yes, beautiful heroines and the way she ties multiple threads into satisfying conclusions. I can't wait to see what's coming next!

[Jemima Brigges · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mother's love and determination are powerful forces

Precarious Game of Hide and Seek is set in the England of 1656; three years after the Battle of Worcester, which ended the Civil War. The people involved are living with the aftermath of that devastating event.

A mother’s love and determination are powerful forces when pitted against her husband’s plan to marry their young daughter to a Cromwellian Tax Collector, to reduce the crippling fines and taxes inflicted on Royalists after the Battle of Worcester.

Undeterred by her failure to prevent the marriage, Lady Rowena Crossly sets out to rescue her daughter, Cecelia. Encountering a gang of highwaymen, in the process of robbing the Tax collector, she snatches her daughter away and in so doing becomes a fugitive with a price on her head. Accepting the gang leader’s escort for safety, the women don various disguises to avoid capture by militiamen hunting the highwaymen and Rowena. The rewards offered are enough to test the loyalty of servants and tempt some into betrayal.

Despite knowing that her action has put her beyond the law, Rowena determines to take her daughter to a place of safety. The camaraderie shared with her rescuers makes her realise what she has missed. Gratitude develops into feelings she has never experienced before – but what future is there for a lady estranged from her older husband, and a highwayman…?

Once again, Celia Martin weaves intricate historical detail about life in the 17th century, into a thrilling story of romance, rescue and escape. With her marriage destroyed by her action in saving her daughter, Rowena faces a bleak future, never to see her beloved sons again. Things do not work out the way she imagines...

[Marcia Clayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sir Lindell Crossley, the Baronet of Crossley Oaks, felt he had little choice but to offer the hand of his young teenage daughter, Cecily, in marriage to Haspel, a Puritan tax collector. It appeared to be the only way to reduce the crippling taxes inflicted on the Royalists by the Cromwellians. Having been unable to prevent the marriage, Cecily’s mother, Lady Rowena Crossley, makes a daring escape from her locked room, and rides after the carriage carrying the newlyweds, determined to save her daughter. Fortune is on her side when she finds a gang of highwaymen robbing the tax collector’s coach, and she manages to rescue Cicely. However, by accepting help from the leader of the gang, she becomes a fugitive with a price on her head. As they flee from one safe house to another, they are relentlessly pursued by the militiamen, and Rowena finds that her feelings of gratitude towards Nate, the leader of the highwaymen, develop into something deeper. This is a thrilling tale of romance, danger, and intrigue, and as with all novels by this talented author, the reader is treated to intricate details of life in the seventeenth century. A very enjoyable book which I recommend to all lovers of historical fiction.