When the Puritan Parliament defies King Charles I in the seventeenth century, an estate keeper's young wife must protect her home and children when her husband joins the battle and must confront her growing feelings for a Royalist officer

The English Civil War throws together Captain Nick Hellier and Mistress Silence St. Barbe, a Puritan, whose feelings for the handsome officer compel her to betray her aging husband

Having survived much political turbulence, the great estate of Wintercombe is rocked from within as Silence St. Barbe's grandchildren vie for inheritance and the Duke of Monmouth's 1685 rebellion draws the St. Barbes into danger

Summer 1686. Wintercombe. Louise and Alex mourn the death of their baby son. In the aftermath of tragedy, grief and guilt cast their once happy marriage onto rocks. Louise sinks into depression and Alex seeks comfort in the arms of another woman. Then Alex does the unthinkable and Louise can no longer bear the sight of him. Alex finds refuge and revolutionary intrigue in Holland while his cousin Charles, long desirous of Louise and the family home, returns from exile, intent on fulfilling his ambition at last: to be master of Wintercombe. All affairs of the heart, however, are caught up in a larger swirl of events as James II is about to be dethroned and as anti-Catholic, nationalist sentiment swells—a movement clandestinely aided by Alexander and a courtier who proposes to Alexander’s plain-looking and plain-spoken spinster sister Phoebe. The final installment of the Wintercombe saga. Praise for Treason’s Gift ‘An outstanding historical novelist, Belle now adds another volume to her impressively researched and crafted series set during the English Civil Wars.’ – Publishers Weekly ‘A richly detailed and delightful family chronicle, quickening into an unputdownable adventure story’ – Rosemary Sutcliff ‘A restful cruise for the St. Barbe faithful and period-romance insatiables.’ – Kirkus Reviews ‘A gifted storyteller…who can conjure up a period of history so that we can smell, hear and see it’ – Sarah Harrison, author of The Flowers of the Field Pamela Belle was born and bred in Suffolk, the daughter of a local prep school headmaster. She went to the University of Sussex, and went on to become a primary school teacher. She is the author of seven previous novels including the Wintercombe series and the Moon in the Water series.