From award-winning author Alison Stuart comes a stirring historical trilogy about soldiers, spies and the strong women that love them.

BY THE SWORD

England 1650. In the aftermath of the execution of the King, England totters once more on the brink of civil war.

Kate Ashley finds her loyalty to the parliamentary cause tested when she inherits responsibility for the estate of the royalist Thornton family. Jonathan Thornton, exiled and hunted for his loyalty to the King's cause has returned to England to garner support for the young King. In Kate, he sees a chance at a life he doesn't deserve. But love is fragile in the face of the forthcoming battle. What hope can one soldier and one woman hold in times like these?

THE KING'S MAN

London 1654: Kit Lovell is a disillusioned royalist who passes his time cheating at cards and living off his wealthy and attractive mistress - and plotting the death of Oliver Cromwell.

Penniless and friendless, Thamsine Granville has lost everything. When she hurls a brick at the coach of Oliver Cromwell she is saved from death by a quick thinking stranger. Far from the bored, benevolent rescuer he appears to be, Kit plunges Thamsine into his world of espionage and betrayal - a world that has no place for love.

Torn between Thamsine and loyalty to his master, Kit's carefully constructed web of lies begins to unravel. He must make one last desperate gamble - the cost of which may be his life.

EXILE'S RETURN

England 1659: Following the death of Oliver Cromwell, a new king is poised to ascend the throne of England.

Imprisoned, exiled and tortured, Daniel Lovell has returned to England, determined to kill the man who murdered his father. But his plans for revenge must wait, as the King has one last mission for him.

Agnes Fletcher's lover is dead, and when his two orphaned children are torn from her care by their scheming guardian, she embarks on a perilous journey to save them, a journey she can only undertake with the help of a stranger - Daniel Lovell.

Thrown together by their separate quests - and competing obligations - Daniel and Agnes make their way from London, heading north with danger at every turn.

Will they find the peace they crave or will their fledgling love be the final casualty of war?