I don’t know how OG this novel is, but it’s a sexy pirate adventure romp from the 1940s by our beloved Daphne du Maurier. You’ll be surprised to find that this book takes in Cornwall….and well, we find Lady Dona, part of the court in London getting so bored that she once dressed like a man to tool around the city and commit crimes. So she returns to her country estate to find a curious state of affairs. Her house is filthy and the new caretaker, who has a weird accent, doesn’t seem to care too much. She also finds that someone left some tobacco in her room. No bother.
She also finds that the local community is in a tizzy about pirates possibly being close by. Well it turns out that pirates are close by, and that they’ve been hiding in the creek which I assume means something bigger than when we use creek in the US. Well, the pirate is a sexy French pirate who Lady Dona immediately takes to, and they create a “friendship” and even place a bet on whether or not she would get seasick on his boat. Things go from there! There’s a hunt, there’s a murder, there a potential hanging and so forth. And thank goodness this horrid old crone of 29 is able to get a little adventure in her life.
“And this then, that I am feeling now, is the hell that comes with love, the hell and the damnation and the agony beyond all enduring, because after the beauty and the loveliness comes the sorrow and the pain.”