Queen of Swords

Queen of Swords

The fifth book in the series

hardcover

Queen of Swords
Sara Donati
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 055380149X
13: 978-0-553-80149-1
Edition: Hardcover; 2006-10-31

mass market paperback

Primary Characters

The Bonners and their associates at sea

Hannah Bonner, also known as Hannah Scott, or called Walks-Ahead by the Mohawk, her mother's people, or Walking-Woman by the Seneca, her late husband's. Daughter of Nathaniel Bonner. A trained physician and surgeon
Lady Jennet Scott Huntar, originally of Carryck, Annandale, Scotland
Luke Scott, also called Luke Bonner, a merchant of Montreal, son of an early aliance between Nathaniel Bonner and Giselle Somerville
Major Christian Pelham Wyndham of the King's Rangers, of Quebec, on detached duty to Hispaniola and environs
The crew of the Patience
Piero Bardi, pirate, privateer out of Barataria Bay

L'Ile de Lamantins (Manatee Island)

Anselme Degre, criminal at large, based at Priest's Town on L'Ile de Lamantins, French Antilles. Also known as Father Adam O'Neill Moore, an Irish privateer and defrocked priest

At Port-au-Prince?, Saint-Domingue Hayti

Giselle Somerville Lacoeur and her husband, Gerard Lacoeur, merchant, D'Evereux Plantation

In Louisiana and Western Florida

The Savards and their associates

Paul de Guise Savard dit Saint-d'Uzet. Son of Jean-Baptiste Savard dit Saint-d'Uzet, a merchant and plantation owner, and his first wife, Catherine Trudeau
Julia Simon Livingston Savard, his wife, originally of Manhattan
Henry, aged 7, their son
Rachel Livingston, Julia's daughter by her first marriage, age 16
Jean-Benoit Savard, also called Ben, also called Waking-Bear? by the Choctaw. Son of Jean-Baptiste Savard and Amelie Savard, FWC
Clementine, FWC, housekeeper for the Savards
Maman Zuzu, FWC, Clementine's mother, and a voudou mambo
Maman Antoinette, FWC, Zuzu's mother
Leo, FMC, young Choctaw who works for the Savards
Pere Tomaso Delgado, a local priest and lifelong friend of Ben Savard

The Poiterins and their associates

Honore Poiterin, son of Archange and Pauline Poiterin, both deceased; an adventurer and slave runner
Agnes Poiterin, a widow and Honore's grandmother, of a wealthy banking family based in New Orleans and Pensacola
Mama Dounie, Honore's childhood nurse
Jacinthe, a slave in the Poiterin household
Pere Petit, Madame Poiterin's favored priest
Madame Noelle Soileau, an associate of Honore's

The Livingstons

Edward Livingston, a lawyer, formerly of New York City, and his wife, ((Louisa D'Avezac Moreau)) Livingston, originally of the Sugar Islands

The Prestons

Andrew Preston, merchant, of Pensacola and New Orleans
Titine, FWC, his housekeeper, originally of New Orleans. Daughter of Archange Poiterin, a rich merchant, and Valerie Maurepas, FWC
Eugenie Preston, his elderly widowed sister-in-law, resident on the Bayou St. John outside New Orleans. Her servants Amazilie, FWC, and Tibere, FMC

The American military and militia

Andrew Jackson and his aides
Jean Lafitte and his men
Captain Pierre Juzan
Captain Aloysius Urquhart of the U.S. Army, liaison between the armed forces and the New Orleans Guard
General Villere, New Orleans Creole and the commander of the first division of Louisiana militia
Major Gabriel Villere, his son

Short summary

It is the late summer of 1814, and Hannah Bonner and her half brother Luke have spent more that a year searching the islands of the Caribbean for Luke's wife and the man who abducted her. But Jennet's rescue, so long in coming, is not the resolution they'd hoped for. In the spring she had given birth to Luke's son, and in the summer Jennet had found herself compelled to surrender the infant to a stranger in the hope of keeping him safe.To claim the child, Hannah, Luke and Jennet must journey first to Pensacola. There they learn a great deal about the family that has the baby. The Poiterins are a very rich, very powerful Creole family, totally without scruple. The matriarch of the family has left Pensacola for New Orleans and taken the child she now claims as her great-grandson with her.New Orleans is a city on the brink of war, a city were prejudice thrives and where Hannah, half Mohoawk, must tread softly. Careful plans are made as the Bonners set out to find and reclaim young Nathaniel Bonner. Plans that go terribly awry, isolating them from each other in a dangerous city at the worst of times.Sure that all is lost, and sick unto death, Hannah finds herself in the care of a family and a freind from her past, Dr. Paul de Guise Savard dit Saint-d'Uzet. It is Dr. Savard and his wife who save Hannah's life, but Dr. Savard's half brother who offers her real hope. Jean-Benoit Savard, the great-grandson of French settlers, slaves, and Choctaw and Seminole Indians, is the one man who knows the city well enough to engineer the miracle that will reunite the Bonners and send them home to Lake in the Clouds. With Ben Savard's guidance, allies are drawn from every segment of New Orleans's population and from Andrew Jackson's army, now pouring into the city in preparation for what will be the last major battle of the War of 1812. This text was taken from the inside front and back flaps of the Hard cover edition. --Judy