The Prussian Captain

by Ann Brough

Edward turned twenty nine-years-old on the ship. Looking out over the grey water back towards America, his heart ached for both the country he had adopted and loved, and for the woman he had lost there. 

He was returning to England without having ‘made good’. Without fortune. Without wife and family.

What happens when a middle-aged, wealthy aristocrat falls in love with a young impoverished girl? In an era of strict class and social boundaries, when the rich and the poor of England each had their own firm, clearly defined limits, scandal could ruin the lives of not only the people involved, but reach into families and communities.

When Edward meets Gertrude, his hope for the future is suddenly transformed. But there’s a big problem—he’s already married. Will they risk the scandal? Will they both find what they are looking for?

Based on a true story, The Prussian Captain spans half a century and follows the lives of two very different people from opposite backgrounds. This sweeping story, set in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, will take you from London to Liverpool and the poverty-stricken streets of Neck End in the Midlands of England, to upscale New York and Boston, and the wilds of the Napa Valley.