|
This is a tale of two men—Thomas McDonnell, master carpenter and stonemason; and Harold Marston Fitch, heir to the title Viscount of Dermont in the County of Meath—“rebels abroad” who take radically different paths on two different continents. Both are strong-willed men separated by class, politics and religion—inextricably linked by Brigid McDonnell, Thomas’s fifteen-year-old daughter, Harold’s secret lover.
In 1739-1740, Ireland is stricken with a severe cold wave known to history as the “The Great Frost.” Evicted from their cottage, Thomas and Brigid must seek lodgings in Dublin in a time when the Protestant nobility marginalized and persecuted Catholics with a set of restrictions known as the Penal Laws. As famine and riots rage across the island, the McDonnells embark on a voyage to the American colony of Maryland. But the Atlantic crossing is a dangerous one, complicated by Great Britain’s war with Spain and the onset of hurricane season. Tragedy and hardship beset the family, ultimately forcing Thomas to become an indentured servant. He must adjust to his new life on a Maryland tobacco plantation, living among slaves and observing the institution of slavery close up.
Harold’s drinking and debauchery lead to expulsion from Dermont Manor and his enlistment in the prestigious Inniskilling Dragoons, an adventure that weaponizes his already-frightening tendencies and hones his considerable skills. From daring anti-smuggling raids on the Lincolnshire coast to the wild underworld of Georgian London, and finally to the battlefields of the Holy Roman Empire, Harold ascends in rank and becomes a top-rate soldier, earning the respect and loyalty of those in his command. At the same time he descends gradually into the world of the psychopath—although this term did not exist in the 1740’s. A true narcissist and con-artist, liar and manipulator, Harold grows more sinister as the story progresses. Driven by impulsivity, feelings of entitlement and superiority, promiscuity and other forms of self-gratification, he seizes upon opportunities which bring him even more success. But he is compelled to expose a dark family secret and to find those who betrayed him.
Set against a turbulent age of starvation and riots, oppression and war, Rebels Abroad teems with a vivid cast of heroes and villains as they travel from Georgian Ireland across oceans and seas to England, the European continent and Tidewater Maryland. Passion and violence collide in a drama of epic proportions.
|
