Acts of Faith

In the summer of 1716, as King George celebrates victory over the Jacobite rebels, waiting-woman Hester Kean is sent into Yorkshire to ready her cousin Mary for life at Court. Nursing a broken heart, Hester is grateful for the change of scenery, but her peace is soon disrupted by the religious conflicts still stirring tensions in Great Britain. She befriends a fellow passenger on the stage, a neighbor of her cousins, who turns out to be a Roman Catholic, coming home after receiving an illegal education in France. When they arrive to learn that his father has been murdered, Hester efforts to help are stymied by the secrecy under which Catholics are forced to live. To solve the murder, she must delve into the practices Catholics used to shield themselves from the laws and the neighbors who would do them harm. Returned after smuggling an escaped Jacobite prisoner into France, Gideon Fitzsimmons, the outlawed Viscount St. Mars, aka the highwayman Blue Satan, tracks Hester to Yorkshire and presents himself at her cousins' house in the guise of a gentleman searching for an estate to purchase. His real object is to mend his relationship with Hester and win her. His appearance conquers Hester's worst doubts. Her only question is, does he want her for his mistress or his wife? Before this question can be answered, the murderer makes Gideon his scapegoat, and he must be cleared of suspicion so they can plan their future together.


Genre: Historical Mystery