Diamonds&Pearls

When her father remarries, the honest, innocent Molly Gibson suddenly finds herself with a new stepsister, Cynthia, who is beautiful, worldly and impetuous. This would be more than enough to deal with, but the new wife is the deeply snobbish (and darkly secretive) Hyacinth. Thwarted love, scheming ambition and small-town gossip underlie the warmth, irony and brilliant social observation which link the relationships and the inevitable conflicts as profound change comes to rural England.

It is 1667, and the mighty naval war between the Dutch and the English still rages. Sir Francis Courteney and his son Hal, in their fighting caravel, are on patrol off southern Africa, lying in wait for a treasure-laden galleon of the Dutch East India Company that is returning from the Orient. They have a letter from Charles II sanctioning them to hunt down and capture enemy ships "beyond the line".