Sea of Secrets: A Novel of Victorian Romantic Suspense

by DeWees, Amanda

  “And some very pleasant ones.”

  “Granted. But I still wonder…”

  “What?” he asked, when my voice trailed off.

  I glanced up at him apologetically. “It’s probably unkind of me to mention the possibility to you. But since he’s to be my father-in-law… do you think your father killed the duke?”

  Leaning against him, I felt him sigh, and when I looked up again he was staring unseeing at the horizon. “I’ve wondered that too,” he said. “It seems significant that he was killed just months before Herron’s birthday. That would suggest that the trust was a motive, and it would mean that my father would have had excellent reason, apart from his wish to marry Aunt Gwendolyn. But all the same, I find it hard to see him deciding to kill his own brother. I might believe it if his own life had been at stake, or Aunt Gwendolyn’s.”

  “I keep coming to the same conclusion. Oh, I shouldn’t have mentioned it at all; I suppose Herron’s suspicions just planted themselves in my mind…”

  “It is a mystery, though.” We fell silent, and presently Charles said, slowly, “One explanation did occur to me. It’s probably farfetched, but it would explain things.”

  “Go on,” I urged him, when he seemed to hesitate. “I’m sure any theory of yours is quite sound.”

  He threw me a quick glance of affection, and continued. “The two of them were hunting alone, which did not often happen; usually they went out with a party of guests and neighbors, or at least with the grooms. Perhaps one of them took the opportunity to bring up something that had become an obvious source of discord: my father’s love for Gwendolyn.

  “Father might have asked Ambrose if there was any possibility of divorce; or perhaps my uncle had lost patience with Father’s all too evident affection for his wife. But however the subject arose, I think both of them realized that they could not continue as they had. The matter had to be resolved.” He turned to gaze behind us at the woods. “My uncle was a fierce defender of what he considered fairness. I can imagine the sort of solution that would have presented itself to him in that situation.”

  “What?” I demanded.

  He turned back to me with a grim smile. “A duel,” he said.

  “But in the middle of the woods? In full daylight, with no seconds?”

  “There are open stretches in the forest where they would have had unobstructed aim at each other. They had guns with them already, for the most natural of purposes, and precisely because they were known to be hunting the sound of gunshots would arouse no suspicion. It is just the kind of practical, cool-headed, cold-blooded plan that my uncle would have thought of, and my father would not have been able to refuse. My father fired first, as the challenged party, and my uncle went down.”

  “But why claim it was an accident?” I wondered.

  “Perhaps precisely because he had such good reason to want his brother dead, and knew what rumor would say. Or perhaps because he was afraid that Aunt Gwendolyn would hold her husband’s death against him.” Sheepishly, he inquired, “What do you think? Is it a ridiculous theory?”

  “From what I have learned of your father and the duke, it sounds very likely,” I said, when I had considered it. It explained a great many things. “Are you going to ask your father?”

  He did not even have to pause to think. “No,” he said. “I don’t know what good it would do. If I’m wrong, I’d prefer not to know; I don’t want to have to wonder about my father’s integrity for the rest of my life. And I would rather not distress Aunt Gwendolyn. It’s in the past now; there’s nothing to be gained by dwelling on it.” He looked down at me with a real smile now, the sort that made my heart turn over. “I would rather concentrate on the future.”

  “So would I,” I said, and hand in hand we walked back to the house.

  The End

  Afterword

  Sea of Secrets had its earliest origin in my crush on Hamlet. Not on the play, but on the character. When I first read Shakespeare’s tragedy as a teenager, I felt like I’d found my soulmate in the troubled prince. His tragic romance with Ophelia fascinated me, and I felt that their story was even more heartrending than those of other famous Shakespearean couples. Romeo and Juliet at least died secure in the knowledge of the other’s love. Ophelia died without such comforting knowledge; not until after her death did Hamlet admit how much he loved her.

  I wanted to see more of their time together, and especially to see what their love affair might have been like before murder, political intrigue, and madness tore them apart. So I wrote a novel exploring the events of Shakespeare’s play from Ophelia’s perspective, showing how I felt her relationship with Hamlet might have played out in the moments not shown onstage.

  When I started submitting that manuscript to publishers, a generous editor fished it out of the slush pile and took the time to phone me with feedback and suggestions. “Get further away from Shakespeare” was what his advice boiled down to. “Make the story your own.” But it wasn’t until years later that I discovered how to do that.

  By then I was working on my doctoral dissertation under the guidance of Dr. Anne Williams, whose fields of expertise include gothic literature. I can’t remember when the epiphany hit me, but I realized that Hamlet was very gothic indeed—it had murder, ghosts, madness, dark secrets from the past, and a deeply messed-up family dynamic at the core. I had been steeping myself in nineteenth-century fiction and poetry, and I could easily see the story transplanted to that era. Hamlet himself seemed like a natural companion to such Byronic characters as Edward Rochester and Heathcliff.

  The only wrinkle was that my feelings about Hamlet himself had changed: I had realized that in real life the brooding loner preoccupied with his own pain generally makes a crummy boyfriend. I had also read enough gothic romances to become weary of the rule that the moody dark man who treats the heroine with contempt is always destined to be the hero, while the nice fair-haired chap with decent manners inevitably turns out to be stringing the heroine along for some nefarious purpose. This time, I decided, the nice guy was going to be just that. The trouble was, nice guys were scarce on the ground in my source material. So Charles was invented out of the whole cloth to serve as Herron’s opposite and a contrast to the general angst.

  The coda to my story is an amusing one: when I submitted Sea of Secrets to the editor whose advice had made such an impression on me, he responded that the story had now strayed too far away from its Shakespearean source material. But by that point, Oriel and the other characters had taken on a life of their own, independent of their Shakespearean counterparts, and I was happy with the story that had grown up around them.

  Because the story has evolved so far from its origins, however, I’ve saved disclosure of the Hamlet connection for this afterword. My hope is that readers who recognize the echoes of Hamlet as they read will enjoy the Shakespearean elements in Oriel’s story, and that those who don’t notice the parallels will nonetheless enjoy Sea of Secrets on its own merits.

  * * *

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  Discussion Questions

  Warning: Spoilers follow! If you have not finished reading Sea of Secrets and don’t wish to know what happens, it’s best not to read the following questions.

  Sea of Secrets is clearly inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. What are some of the parallels? What are the biggest differences? Does Sea of Secrets give you a different perspective on Hamlet? Do the parallels between the two works enhance Sea of Secrets? If so, how?

  Very rarely is the heroine, Oriel, addressed by name. Instead, those around her use endearments, nicknames, or other ways of referring to her (e.g., “daughter,” “Ondine,” “my dear”). What do these different forms of address reveal about each character’s relationship with
Oriel? Who actually calls her by her name, and is this significant?

  The sea is a recurring presence in the book, and Oriel feels she has a special relationship with it. Why is this? In what ways does this connection manifest itself? Is the ocean a symbol? If so, what does it symbolize, and does this meaning change over the course of the story?

  Different characters offer a variety of perspectives on the late duke, Herron’s father. What kind of picture emerges from their descriptions and implications?

  A turning point in Herron and Oriel’s relationship occurs when he strips her on the night of the ball. Why does he do this? What does it reveal about his feelings toward women in general and Oriel in particular?

  Over the course of the novel Oriel gains two suitors. What traits in each man attract her? How are they different? What qualities in Charles may make him a better match for Oriel than Herron?

  How does Oriel change over the course of the story? In what ways does she gain wisdom or maturity? Do you feel that she is a stronger person at the end of the novel than she is at the beginning? What do you envision that her future will be like?

  Oriel is haunted by the fear that she may take after her father. Do you see any resemblances between them? What are her father’s chief personality traits?

  In the 1850s, when the story takes place, the position of Victorian women was still greatly limited. Based on the female characters in the story, what impression do you get of the expected role of the Victorian woman? In what ways do different characters adhere to that role or defy it?

  Sea of Secrets follows in the tradition of classic gothic romance novels like Jane Eyre and Rebecca. What traditional gothic elements do you see in the story? Are any of the gothic conventions altered or overturned in this novel?

  More Victorian Romantic Suspense From Amanda DeWees

  With This Curse

  Winner of the 2015 Daphne du Maurier Award for historical mystery/suspense

  A curse…

  In 1854, seventeen-year-old chambermaid Clara Crofton was dismissed from Gravesend Hall for having fallen in love with Richard Blackwood, the younger son of the house. Alone in the world, Clara found a tenuous position as a seamstress, but she always blamed the Gravesend curse for the disaster that had befallen her—and for Richard’s death soon after in the Crimean War.

  A proposal…

  Now, more than eighteen years later, Richard’s twin, Atticus, seeks out Clara with a strange proposal: if she will marry him and live with him as his wife in name only to ease the mind of his dying father, Atticus will then endow her with a comfortable income for the rest of her life. Clara knows that he is not disclosing his true motives, but when she runs out of options for an independent life, she has no choice but to become Atticus’s wife.

  A deception…

  For Clara, returning to Gravesend as a bride brings some triumph… but also great unease. Not only must she pretend to be a wellborn lady and devoted wife to a man whose face is a constant reminder of the love she lost, but ominous portents whisper that her masquerade brings grave danger. “This house will take from you what you most treasure,” her mother once warned her. But the curse has already taken the man Clara loved. Will it now demand her life?

  Length: 290 pages ~ Sensuality level: mild ~ Book club discussion questions ~ Available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook

  Nocturne for a Widow

  Widowed on her wedding night! Sybil Ingram is at a crossroads. Once she was the toast of the London stage, but now that she's 28 years old—very well, nearly 30—her draw isn't what it used to be, and her theater troupe is foundering. When her trusted mentor asks her to take the blame for his financial misdeeds, Sybil sees no choice but to retire from the life she loves and move to America to marry New York City hotel magnate Alcott Lammle. But her path to happiness is cut short when Lammle dies suddenly—and in financial ruin.

  Widowed, nearly penniless, and unable to return to England, the determined diva sets out to stake a claim on Brooke House, an eccentric neo-Gothic manor in the wilds of the Hudson River Valley. She soon finds, however, that a ghostly presence wants her gone. Even worse, her claim is challenged by the most insolent, temperamental, maddeningly gorgeous man she's ever met: Roderick Brooke, a once-famous former violinist whose career ended in a dark scandal.

  Soon it’s a battle of wills as Sybil matches wits—and trades barbs—with Roderick, finding herself increasingly drawn to him despite her growing suspicion that there is a connection between him and the entity that haunts Brooke House. But an even greater threat arises in the form of the mysterious, powerful queen of local society, Mrs. Lavinia Dove. For reasons that Sybil can't imagine, Mrs. Dove is determined to oust Sybil from her sphere… and the lengths to which she will go are chilling indeed.

  By turns mysterious and moving, sparkling and spooky, Nocturne for a Widow follows a spirited heroine through adventures in life, love, and death. From the colorful theatrical world of late-Victorian London to the American wilderness, Sybil's travels will test her mettle—and her heart.

  Length: 280 pages ~ Sensuality level: mild ~ Available in ebook and paperback

  Also by Amanda DeWees

  The Ash Grove Chronicles

  A captivating young adult paranormal romance trilogy comprising The Shadow and the Rose, Casting Shadows, and Among the Shadows

  “A satisfying supernatural YA tale that effectively mixes high school, magic, and mystery.” —Kirkus Reviews on The Shadow and the Rose

  In the breathtaking Blue Ridge Mountains, Ash Grove High School for the Performing Arts draws the brightest and most talented teens. But beneath the peaceful surface, supernatural forces are at work…

  The Ash Grove Chronicles are a unique and refreshing young adult paranormal romance series. In The Shadow and the Rose, Ash Grove junior Joy Sumner must rescue enigmatic teen model Tanner Lindsey from his seductive, supernatural mentor, the supermodel Melisande. In Casting Shadows,Joy and Tanner confront the aftermath of recent events as their friends Maddie and William struggle with an upheaval in their friendship—and supernatural danger. In Among the Shadows, Tanner finds himself in an alternate reality where Joy doesn’t know him, and when an old enemy returns he must persuade Joy to help him set things right.

  Filled with humor, danger, magic, and romance, the Ash Grove Chronicles are a fresh new experience in young adult paranormal romance fiction. Download The Shadow and the Rose FREE now!

  Age level: Suitable for older teens (17+)

  About the Author

  Atlanta native Amanda DeWees received her PhD in English literature from the University of Georgia and likes to startle people by telling them that her dissertation topic was vampire literature. Besides writing, Amanda’s passions include theater, classic film, Ioan Gruffudd, costume design, and the preservation of apostrophes in their natural habitat. Visit her at amandadewees.com for book extras and other delightful diversions.

  This book is dedicated with gratitude to Bo, Jim, and M— C—, the three most important gentlemen in my writing life, both past and present.

  Books by Amanda DeWees

  Nocturne for a Widow

  Sea of Secrets

  With This Curse

  The Ash Grove Chronicles:

  The Shadow and the Rose

  Casting Shadows

  Among the Shadows

  Copyright Notice

  Sea of Secrets

  Copyright © 2012 Amanda DeWees

  All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or distributed in any printed or electronic form without the prior express written permission of the author.

  If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or p
ersons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ASIN: B00747GA0G

  Cover design by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design

  Visit the author at amandadewees.com or on Facebook as Author Amanda DeWees.