In a society where being a Protestant would have you killed, young Danielle Rochette witnesses her friend's parents killed and her friend dragged away. Danielle couldn't even fathom what would happen to her young friend Susanna. In fear for her own life and her family's she runs home to inform her parents of the treachery. Those hiding from King Luis XIV and his favorable Catholicism decided to flee France to a land where they could practice the religion they so loved.
Danielle Rochette flees and hides in a barrel of a ship but she is soon found by the rough, rugged, handsome Privateer Scott Dominion. Scott, having been born a bastard hated the French. His father had been a Frenchmen and had abandoned his mother. When he finds this beautiful woman on his ship he is compelled to keep her. Her French accent only makes his temper worse but in the end her beauty, her body and her sex appeal mesmerize Scott. She soon becomes his gypsy witch.
Mariah LeGrand has written another awesome book. She certainly knows her history and gets an A+ in the romance department. The Gypsy Witch is filled with some mind-boggling sex scenes and there is a lot more rocking the boat then just motion in the ocean. Her characters bring you into the story and keep you there, sharing their adventures with you. They Gypsy Witch is a must read and if you liked Reiver's Passion you will fall in love with this one.
After seeing her best friend's parents brutally murdered and her friend carried away by the men of Louis the XIV to prison and an awful fate, Danielle races on her horse to warn her family. Gathering at their church with their Protestant Brethren, they plan a daring escape from the King's Huguenots to England by ship. They fail miserably and are trapped in the church and burned alive. Only Danielle manages to escape with the help of the good ship's captain who hides her from the searchers. To the captain's dismay, he manages to outsmart the Huguenot captain but not that of a treacherous privateer Scott Dominion. Scott Dominion hates the French and attacks all French ships. Lucky for Danielle he discovers her hiding place before sinking the ship they have taken and saves her from a watery grave. Danielle, who has been dressed as a boy to save her from the nefarious Captain, becomes Scott's cabin boy. She serves the post doing the job of two men for several days until one afternoon Scott sees her silhouetted in the sun. With the light shining through his cabin windows as he bathes he sees her womanly attributes. Scott all along has suspected something not quiet right about his quick tempered and feisty cabin boy and leaves his bath tub naked to pull the "boy's" cap off allowing Danielle's hair to fall down past her shoulders to reveal the truth.
With the electricity of their attraction too strong to be ignored the two soon find their way to the bunk and Scott looses his heart to the strong willed French stowaway he had dubbed Gypsy. Determined to keep her identity a secret from his superstitious crew, except his life long friend Ricardo, he keeps her in his cabin, only dressed as a cabin boy does he allow her top side. As the ship draws near the English islands Danielle jumps ship, literally, and swims to the closest island, thinking Scott means to keep her only as his mistress when he wants her as his wife. She is befriended by a kindly English woman, Lady Elizabeth, who is worried and distraught about her husband a captain who smuggles Protestants from the cruel oppression of the French Huguenots. Danielle agrees to go into the next port and see if her husband is there. Finding he is there and in the care of Mrs. Dominion, Scott's mother, she doesn't tell her she knows her son. Sir Francis is injured, Mrs. Dominion is caring for him but Sir Francis cannot captain his ship. Danielle forms a desperate plan. Because her father had taught her to shoot, ride and do most of the thing a nobleman would teach a son, knowing Danielle would be his only child she knows she can replace Sir Francis and captain his ship to get the refugee French to their English destination. Disguised as a man, with only her second mate David knowing the truth she embarks on the mission and successfully completes her mission.
David makes it known he has fallen for the beautiful captain but her heart is already taken by the handsome privateer Scott Dominion and she makes it clear to David there is no future for them. Undertaking the next mission, determined to save as many of the suffering Protestants as she can, Danielle's ship comes under attack by the French. The Flying Eagle, Scott's ship, saves her. He knows her immediately and though she is angered by his lack of respect for her command and reveals the fact that she is a woman to her crew they soon find themselves in each other's arms. Once again, their love confirmed, Scott still does not make his intentions clear and they go their separate ways.
Danielle soon finds she is carrying Scott's child and reveals all to him after her final voyage as captain of the Gypsy Witch. On the last voyage Danielle has rescued her childhood friend Susanna who has barely managed to live for the last year after being dumped, ill used by the king's men on the water front in France. After being verbally abused by David and David severely reprimanded by Danielle, David finds Susanna to be a worthy woman and falls in love with her. Scott, in the mean time is on the high seas looking for Danielle and almost killed in a fight with the French. Nursed back to the living by Danielle she doesn't tell him about the son she has borne him, not wanting to trap him into marriage. His strength regained, Danielle accompanies Sir Francis called away to the bedside of his deathly ill wife Lady Elizabeth. Instead, both find themselves illegally arrested by a French, contingent of solders, led by the evil, and dying, debauched father of Scott. The man Scott has sworn to kill for what he did to his mother.
Scott on the mend finds out about his son, at first thinking the boy is his brother by Ricardo. Told the truth he becomes angry with Danielle for not telling him and goes to confront her. He learns the French have arrested her and Sir Francis and taken them to the worst hellhole in all of France to await their deaths.
Ms.Legrande has written a wonderful intriguing and sensual tale of two star-
crossed lovers who fight against all odds to save each other's lives, and the
lives of their fellow compatriots from the cruelty of their King. The moving
story of the courage of a young woman filling the role and responsibility of
a man, in colonial France, fighting for what she felt was right and not
depending on a man to defend her or her future. Ms. Legrande's story packs
plenty of sexual tension and sexuality yet retains a flowing and poetic grace
that make her love scenes a delectable treat to enjoy.
Just a quick note of reference-I learned something from the very beginning of The Gypsy Witch. "Hugon" is a French word used to describe people who stalk the streets at night. The Protestants of 1685 were called "Huguenots" since they held their religious assemblies under the cloak of darkness. France - The parents of Danielle Rochette's best friend were slain by French soldiers-their only crime-being Protestants in a time when Catholicism was considered the only permissible religion by King Louis XIV-after he overturned the Edict of Nantes. Drawn by Susanna's screams, Danielle hides behind a hedge and watches the soldiers drag Susanna away. Fearing for her own life, Danielle seeks the safety of her home and shares the terrible news with her parents. Her father immediately leaves to warn others and devise a plan. Danielle secretly follows and listens to the gathering of men speak of leaving France.
On the morrow, Danielle and her parents will be among those who flee aboard the ship of Capt. Le Homme. They'll leave behind everything they own, except what they can carry, and will sail for Holland in search of a safe and free life-if they can evade the patrolling soldiers on land and the notorious privateer who rules the seas. Unfortunately, Danielle makes the journey alone.
The Gypsy Witch by Mariah LeGrand will reach out and grab you from page one
and not turn you loose until the very end. Danielle's adventure begins when
Capt. Le Homme's vessel is overtaken by Scott Dominion, a breathtakingly
handsome pirate who steals more than booty. She becomes his private stock and
you can only guess what follows. You'll be moved by more than just the
wonderful descriptions of the rise and fall of the waves. Be prepared for
some well-written love scenes that I promise will steam up your glasses. Ms.
LeGrand has penned a wonderfully descriptive tale of history and interwoven a
captivating romance that makes learning fun... in more ways than one. Treat
yourself to a great read--The Gypsy Witch.
By Brenda Edde
For the Romance Junkies
Blue Ribbon Rating: 4
Danielle rode like the wind home to her home to warn her parents, who were also Huguenots. Her father, Pierre Rochette, immediately calls a church meeting to plan ways to protect his fellow church members, secretly planning the evacuation of his family via sea to England. Having raised Danielle as he would have a son, teaching her to shoot and allowing her to dress in breeches, he puts her in charge of protecting her mother at the church meeting when he suspects treachery is afoot. Unfortunately, this is one time her mother Monique doesn't obey orders, fleeing back to her husbands side, they both perish leaving Danielle to escape orphaned and in shock to the ship waiting to take her to England.
Scott Dominion standing at the helm, eyes cold, watches as his crew prepares a broadside hit on the French ship, only Ricardo, who has been with Scott since he was young knows the true reasons for Scott's hatred of the French. The French have reason to fear him as he has been patrolling the waters between France and England sending many a French ship limping home or to the bottom after releaving them of their booty. Doing just this to Captain Le Home’s ship, he has his men transfer all of their supplies to The Scarlet Eagle. Going below to survey his booty, he hears a moan as he straightens a hogshead barrel. Startled he opens the barrel to find what he believes is a stowaway, a young lad with little fear and a sassy mouth. Since Scott wasn't inclined to throw the young lad overboard, he makes him his cabin boy, determined to put some muscles on the outspoken boy. For some reason the lad who calls himself Dan brings out Scott’s protective instincts, and when he finds out Dan is really Danielle, the protectiveness is combined with a lust that neither of them is able to resist.
Danielle can’t believe that the privateer she had been told was an enemy of France could be so alluring, falling in love with Scott is inevitable and she doesn't believe her feelings are returned. Believing that the only way to protect her heart is to escape, she jumps overboard in the dead of the night, never giving Scott a chance to tell her that his plans for a home for the two of them isn’t a plan to make her his mistress. When she is presented with the opportunity to captain a ship to help the French Huguenots to escape their prosecution, she jumps at the chance once again donning her Dan Rochette persona. As fate would have it Scott comes to her aid in a battle against a French warship, he is stunned to find the woman he couldn't get out of his mind since her disappearance battling the French. Once again face-to-face with Scott, Danielle finds that the love she tried so hard to kill is still very much alive. However, Danielle is determined to continue her efforts to help the Huguenots and Scott isn’t ready to give up his hunt for revenge against the French. Their love always seems to be put on a back burner while the more important goals they both believe in deeply guide their lives.
THE GYPSY WITCH is a story of two strong willed people determined to accomplish the goals they've set for themselves, denying the love that both feel but are unable to voice. Ms. LeGrand tells an epic tale spanning years against the historical story of France's religious prosecution of the Huguenots, using the history to enrich the story of Danielle and Scott's struggle to find a way to believe in and find time for their love. Scott’s first mate Ricardo, his mother, and Danielle’s lost friend Susanna all combine to round out the story, with subplots that keep the story moving toward a happy ending for Scott and Danielle.
