Set in the 1790s, war between Britain, France and Spain forms the background to Beverley Elphick's much-anticipated second novel, Retribution. Men and boys are being forced onto the King's ships by unscrupulous press gangs while the womenfolk left behind struggle to deal with the consequences at home of food-shortages, hunger and rampant disease, as well as smuggling and street crime. In the second of a trilogy beginning with the popular Three Round Towers, Esther Coad is once again on her old stomping ground of Lewes in East Sussex, looking forward to her wedding and hoping to continue her midwifery training with Dr Grieve despite the resistance of Will, her husband-to-be. As before, she moves betwixt and between extremes of wealth and poverty, using her many skills to bring assistance to disadvantaged women in the later stages of pregnancy. But bad blood and old grievances mean that there are those who will stop at nothing to bring down both Esther and the child...

It is 1795 and Esther Coad is plunged into destitution when her mother, father and younger brother are taken by the Great Sickness. She is relieved when a distant relative offers her a home at Coad Farm in the tiny hamlet of Hamsey but soon discovers that the offer is not made in kindness but from the desire for cheap labour. She finds her relatives unkind and mean spirited and the work is hard, especially with the lipsy leg Esther has suffered from since birth. Esther's life improves when a new servant, Becca arrives. Becca is young, vivacious and pretty and in no time the girls become firm friends. One bright Midsummer's day they venture to the hiring fair at nearby Lewes, a decision that will trigger a sequence of events that will test Esther to the limit.A tragedy leaves Esther with a tiny baby and mourning a senseless death. Esther fears for her own life and that of the child and runs away from the farm throwing herself at the mercy of strangers who support her as she...