The Golden Sovereigns

Sometimes you find light in the darkest of places…

With her parents dead, the young and beautiful Carmody Petrie is left to run Oaklands, the family estate, until her brother is old enough to inherit it.

Ralph, however, is young, foolish and prone to gambling – perfect prey for the political opportunists that abound in late seventeenth-century England.

Soon, Oaklands is lost and brother and sister ruined.

For just as Ralph has been exploited by the rebels, Carmody had also been conned by the man who promised to marry her.

Set adrift amidst political turmoil, Carmody strives to make the best of her lot.

She too falls in with the rebels, and in particular with the man who would be king — James, Duke of Monmouth. But it would seem that both James and Caromody are doomed.

Now living on the wrong side of the law, sensing herself guilty of more than one crime, she is captured and transported to Jamaica.

Upon landing, Carmody, who’s adopted a false identity, finds herself in a completely different world. Now a commodity to be bought and sold, she is set to work on an island plantation, where she experiences the gritty reality of life both above and below stairs.

Fleeing the advances of her cruel master, she escapes through her marriage to a local landowner.

But far from free, Carmody soon realises that she has merely committed herself into a prison of a different kind.

Locked into matrimony with a cruel and vicious husband, Carmody needs all her wits to survive.

Does the new land of Virginia hold the key to her freedom? Or is it the handsome stranger whom she meets by chance?

As her bid for a new life, the unbreakable nature of her marriage contract and the attentions of Mark Tennant collide, it seems that Carmody Petrie must live out her days in sorrow.

Or will events from the past come back in the most unexpected way, to open up a brighter path to her future?

Praise for Jocelyn Carew

‘An epic historical romance’ – Holly Kinsella, bestselling author of Uptown Girl

Jocelyn Carew (along with Vanessa Grey) is a pen-name used by Jacquelyn Aeby, who was born in Indiana and graduated from the University of Chicago. Under these three names she has written over thirty historical romance novels with a particular focus on the Georgian and Regency periods. Her other bestselling titles include The Masked Heiress, The Lonely Earl, The Wicked Guardian and The Wayward Governess.