A Regency-era romantic adventure where a Duke is ordered to assume guardianship over a bold young woman who refuses to believe her parents' lives were lost during a treasure hunt. The first in a three-book series.

The romance and action of this Regency-era series moves from Europe to Iceland in the epic tale of a young woman searching for her treasure-hunting parents, and a Duke whose treasure is the young woman's heart.

During the early seventeenth century, Kisama emerged in West Central Africa (present-day Angola) as communities and an identity for those fleeing expanding states and the violence of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The fugitives mounted effective resistance to European colonialism despite—or because of—the absence of centralized authority or a common language. In Fugitive Modernities Jessica A. Krug offers a continent- and century-spanning narrative exploring Kisama's intellectual, political, and social histories. Those who became Kisama forged a transnational reputation for resistance, and by refusing to organize their society around warrior identities, they created viable social and political lives beyond the bounds of states and the ruthless market economy of slavery. Krug follows the idea of Kisama to the Americas, where fugitives in the New Kingdom of Grenada (present-day Colombia) and Brazil used it as a means of articulating politics in fugitive slave communities. By tracing the movement of African ideas, rather than African bodies, Krug models new methods for grappling with politics and the past, while showing how the history of Kisama and its legacy as a global symbol of resistance that has evaded state capture offers essential lessons for those working to build new and just societies.

Family tree -- Glossary of names -- Timeline -- Map -- A note on money -- Prologue -- Book one: The bastard son -- Book two: The obedient nephew -- Book three: The prince alone -- Afterword: Alessandro's ethnicity.

In 1580, during the French Civil Wars, the Duke of Latteraine has been imprisoned in the Chateau Lamorre for 15 years, together with his servant, Gribaud. The Duke has feigned blindness in the hope that it will aid his eventual escape. As the two men play a tense game of chess, it becomes evident that confinement has caused Gribaud to lose his reason. They are visited by an erstwhile friend named Voulain, now in the service of the enemy, who tries to persuade the Duke that he is still loyal to him. Voulain sets out a daring plan of escape. The Duke must decide whether he can be trusted-and determine what to do with a loyal, mad companion who could be the plan's undoing.