The Master of Appleby: A Novel Tale Concerning Itself in Part with the Great Struggle in the Two Carolinas; but Chiefly with the Adventures Therein of Two Gentlemen Who Loved One and the Same Lady

The title alone promises what follows: a tale of two rivals, one lady, and the Revolutionary War's bloody chaos in the Carolinas. Captain John Ireton returns from military service to find his family's estate seized and his world upended. Waiting for him is a challenge to duel from Sir Francis Falconnet, a man whose connection to the mysterious Margery Stair complicates everything. Their rivalry is not merely personal but interwoven with the larger conflict tearing the colonies apart. As the war closes in, old friendships shatter, new allegiances form, and two gentlemen must fight for both honor and love. Francis Lynde writes with the breathless pace of serialized adventure fiction while grounding his romance in the actual terrain and tensions of the Southern campaign. This is historical romance at its Victorian peak: melodramatic, yes, but crackling with the genuine danger of a world where bullets and heartbreaks arrive equally unannounced.