Highwayman: Winter Swarm

December 1655. Major Samson Lyle remains an outlaw pursued by the authorities of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate. His service as a Roundhead has left him with military skill but no faith in the regime created by Parliament’s victory, and the murder of his wife has made revenge a continuing purpose. Bella and Eustace Grumm share his exile while Colonel John Maddocks’s hunt restricts their movement across southern England.

Lyle plans a coordinated blow intended to disrupt the army and punish the officials who sustain military government. Winter weather, informers and the vulnerability of his small band make the scheme as dangerous to his allies as to its targets. Success requires the highwayman to use the organisational methods he learned in Cromwell’s forces against the same system, while Maddocks waits for one mistake that will convert rebellion into a public execution.