Beneath the Rose

the ReproBate saga Book I

By: S.L. Kotar, J.E. Gessler

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Daring. Resourceful. Devil-may-care. Moody. Superstitious. Gambler. Confederate blockade-runner. Captain Rudy Blake was many things to many people, but there was one descriptive word upon which they all agreed. Reprobate. Captain Blake not only reveled in the nickname, he had the audacity to name his ship after himself. The Reprobate. Not a smoke-belching steamer but a swift, sleek four-masted schooner capable of outrunning the Federal gunboats and slipping behind those dangerous, ponderous vessels to deliver what the wealthy citizens of Charleston most sought: luxuries. A man who swore allegiance to no cause but his own, in the opening months of 1863 Blake confronts a Union squadron blocking his entrance into Charleston Harbor. Cunningly outfoxing Admiral Meechum’s flagship, he discovers a prize greater than the Union gunboats in the officer’s quarters – a female passenger named Rose Theodore. Not only does she admit to being the admiral’s mistress, she divulges the combination to his safe where Rudy finds Meechum’s Master’s papers, a horde of cash and the naval plans for the spring campaign. More significantly, Rose reveals a plot hatched between Meechum and Jefferson Davis whereby the president of the Confederacy has traded Blake’s itinerary in exchange for the delivery of heavy field ordnance. The deal was consummated, she deduces, because Davis was unable to trust the South’s most successful gun-runner because he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the CSA. The Yankee prostitute and the Southern mercenary form an unusual partnership that leads them to Richmond and near fatal adventures.