Note to readers:  This e-book is an extensively revised edition of the 1994 paperback; all reviews posted prior to August, 2012, do NOT reflect the current book.A hot, new, award-winning release from the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of  the de Montforte Brothers series!Proud Pirate Queen. With her feisty band of warrior women, Maeve Merrick, the notorious Pirate Queen of the Caribbean, commands the seas in her beautiful schooner Kestrel. Burned by the treachery of men and nursing a painful betrayal from her past, Maeve wants for nothing ... until the sea delivers a handsome castaway to her remote island. High Stakes and Betrayal. Nothing is as it appears. Maeve's prisoner has a dangerous secret - a secret that could very well change the fate of nations ... but from the moment the fiery she-pirate lays eyes upon her gift from the sea, she finds her most precious possession - her heart - in danger of becoming a pirate's plunder in this fast-paced, passionate tale of love set in the summer of 1805.