privateer – Leenie Brown

Meet the Characters: These two are off to the races, literally.

Today, I’ve got a couple of paintings paired with the book description for Other Pens, book 5, Addie: To Wager on Her Future. I decided not to do an excerpt today because next Tuesday, I plan to start sharing chapters of the book on a weekly basis here on my blog. I’ve shared all the other books at one time or another on the blog, but not book five. So, since my Thursday story has completed, I thought it would be a good time to give Addie and Robert’s story a read-through.

So, without further ado, here is what the book is about:

Whoever said nothing ventured, nothing gained never had her heart on the line…

Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath, with a trainer, a jockey and a stable lad. George Stubbs, 1765. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Meet the Characters: Tom and His Angel in Disguise

If you’re looking for books that have prim and proper young misses who sit and wait to be rescued by their knight in shining armour, this book isn’t for you. 😉

The heroine of Tom: To Secure His Legacy, Faith Eldridge, is all that is prim and proper until it become “necessary” to be otherwise, and frankly, for Faith, those otherwise times seem to pop up on a regular basis, as in more than once per week.

First, there was that time her brother’s friend fell from his horse and nearly died when she stepped in to play the part of nurse maid. (Mr. Bertram doesn’t remember that she was there, sitting next to his bed, while he convalesced. Or, at least, she hopes he doesn’t remember.)

Meet the Characters: Mary Crawford and a Privateer

What is a privateer?

That’s an important thing to know when reading book three in my Other Pens series, Mary: To Protect Her Heart.

This is the definition of privateer from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

1660s, “private man of war, armed vessel owned and officered by private persons, usually acting under commission from the state,” from private (adj.), probably on model of volunteer (n.), buccaneer. From 1670s as “one commanding or serving on a privateer.” As a verb, 1660s (implied in privateering) “to cruise on a privateer, to seize or annoy an enemy’s ships and commerce.”

Why would you need to know what a privateer is before reading Mary Crawford’s rather bumpy road to happily ever after?

Because the hero of her story owns and has sailed on privateers, which makes both him and the ships he owns privateers. 😉 Yes, it is a word that refers both to people and things.

And if you read that definition thinking that privateering sounds a lot like piracy, you wouldn’t be alone in that opinion. Even at the time when privateering was being practiced, there were those who did not see privateers as defenders of the country but rather no more than legalized pirates.

How is privateering different from piracy?

To state it simply, a privateer sailed under a letter of marque from the government which allowed them to legally attack and capture vessels from a nation with whom the government was at war. When a vessel and its cargo were captured, they were brought back to a port and the prize was evaluated as to whether or not it was legitimate and then, if it was a clean capture, it was listed and sold. The privateer owners and crew shared in the amount of money brought in by such sales.

If you look up the history of privateering you will see that there were rules the privateers were supposed to follow and that there was also often confusion over whether things were done legally or illegally. It was definitely not always all neat and tidy.

And that describes the hero of Mary: To Protect Her Heart pretty well. He was a man of stalwart integrity, don’t get me wrong. However, he was also someone with whom few, who were wise, would wish to tangle.

But before we meet him, let’s look at story connection.