Iâm so excited to be given the chance to be part of the Mills & Boon Undone! Ebook launch! Not only do I get to try a whole new (new to me, anyway!) format, I get to revisit a setting and a group of characters I love. High Seas Stowaway, coming soon from Mills & Boon Historical, is the story of Balthazar Grattiano, a shipâs captain sailing the treasure-laden waters of the Caribbean in 1535, and Bianca Simonetti, the owner of a tavern in the Spanish island town of Santo Domingo. They share a secret pastâbut itâs the present that proves even more dangerous! Love, passion, perilâall with white sand beaches, turquoise waters, and warm sun. Of course I wanted to go back there!
One of the characters we meet in High Seas Stowaway is Carlos de Alameda, a handsome, mysterious Spanish nobleman. I wanted to know more about him, about his storyâand about the kind of woman who could uncover all that delicious inscrutability. I think I found her in Maria, a woman with plenty of mysteries of her own. I hope you enjoy their tale, too!
The history of the early Spanish Caribbean is a fascinating one. I had so much fun researching these two stories (and touring recreations of Renaissance ships!). A few interesting sources are: Kenneth Andrewsâ The Spanish Caribbean: Trade and Plunder; CH Haringâs The Spanish Empire in America; Carl Sauerâs The Early Spanish Main; Marcus Redikerâs Villains of All Nations; and Wayne Curtisâs And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails. (Because, as anyone who has seen Pirates of the Caribbean can attest, whatâs the Caribbean without some rum? And some sexy pirates!)
Amanda McCabe wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen - a vast epic starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class. She's never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA®, Romantic Times' Reviewersâ Choice Award, the Booksellersâ Best, the National Readerâs Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma with a menagerie of two cats, a Pug, and a bossy miniature Poodle, and loves dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't cook. Visit her at http://ammandamccabe.tripod.com and http://www.riskyregencies.blogspot.com"
Chapter One
The Spanish Main, 1535
She was going to die.
That sure knowledge should have created panic, tears, screams. But all Maria Gonzales felt was a strange, cold calm. A distance from the whole hellish scene.
The storm raged up suddenly as their ship, the Santa Theresa, traversed the Mona Passage, a tempestuous strait between the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Black, boiling clouds scudded across the sky, blocking out the light and casting them into abject darkness. Wind howled from astern, shoving their mighty vessel across the waves as if it was a mere handful of kindling.
Rain pounded down; waves broke across the bow, high and strong enough to sweep a man overboard in an instant. The ship pitched and rolled like a childâs toy. When the masts, denuded of their sails, snapped, leaving them entirely at the mercy of the sea, Maria knew they were doomed.
She huddled below decks, with Contessa Isabella de Valadez and her other maids, kneeling in the briny water as Father Ignacio prayed.
âOh, Almighty and merciful God, who hast commissioned Thy angels to guide and protect usâ¦â he cried, his voice high-pitched with panic despite the comforting words. Contessa Isabellaâs eyes were tightly closed, her soft fingers white as bone on the rosary beads. Her other ladies sobbed, clutching to her velvet cloak, but Mariaâs eyes were wide open. If these were her last moments, she wanted to see everything. See her end coming, death borne on a cold, silvery wave.
All she saw was the cramped hold, barrels of provisions floating in the rising water, splintered masts driving into the ship at angles. Torrents of rain pouring down on them from the cracks overhead. The howling wind drowned out the womenâs sobs, the priestâs prayers, and all she heard was the silence in her own head.
This was not what she had hoped for when she left Seville. Her parents long dead, abandoned by the blacksmithâs son she thought she loved, sheâd known all that waited for her was a future as a tavern maid. Of scrubbing and fetching, of serving sweaty old men with grasping hands. A black prospect indeed.
But then, like a gift from the Virgin Herself, had come this chance to join the service of Contessa Isabella. Isabella was going to meet her betrothed, the nephew of His Majestyâs governor of the island of Cuba in the New World. A fresh chance, far away from Spain.
Maria had heard frightening tales of the islands, of course. Stories of murderous, heathen natives, bloodthirsty pirates, deadly fevers, strange foods. But surely it could not be worse than her life in Seville! In Havana, she could be someone else entirely.