The wanton troopers riding by
Have shot my faun and it will die.

Wanton Troopers is a historical romance set in the tumultuous aftermath of the English Civil War.

The action unfolds in the cloud-wracked autumn of 1645 as the defeated Royalist Hugh Malahide returns to his Uncle’s impoverished estate in need of sanctuary:
‘He had half expected warmth at last and blessings, had them stored up as miser’s gain. But he had already been upstaged. The tableau that greeted him was not of upflung arms and welcome, but of a medical emergency in front of him, centred on a writhing, groaning heap of bloodied old clothes there on the floor of his uncle’s hallway.’

The ‘groaning heap’ is Tom Fentiman, a figure who will drag the hero, Hugh, into a whirlwind adventure of danger and betrayal, and into the path of the beautiful Isabella, daughter of his Parliamentarian rival, with whom romance and a happy life seems an impossibility, but one he does not resist.

Can this defeated Royalist reject the siren song of King Charles ‘s lost cause, and survive?
Only armed by force of character and a charm-the-birds smile, Hugh sets about seduction, burglary and defying Fate.