Treason's Gift

An outstanding historical novelist, Belle now adds another volume to her impressively researched and crafted series set during the English Civil Wars. Once again, we meet characters she introduced in Wintercombe . When the handsome rake Sir Alexander St. Barbe and his captivating wife, Louise, lose their first child, Louise retreats into her grief and Alex has a foolish affair. Though the couple reconcile, Alex's vicious aunt reveals Alex's indiscretion to Louise, causing another breach between them; then Alex's actions during a drunken rage force him to flee the country. In the Netherlands, Alex comes to lead the party that is encouraging their Highnesses of Orange to assume the British throne before James II can relight the fires of Smithfield. Meanwhile, Alex's cousin and nemesis Charles, long desirous of his wife and home, usurps Wintercombe. Again, Belle's characters are sympathetic and well drawn, her prose fluid and her plotting adroit, historic figures meshing seamlessly with fictional ones. (Feb.)