When the Fight Was Done

Set in India in September 1817 on the eve of the Third Maratha War, this historical novel tells the story of lovers united by serious misconceptions about each other and beset by intrigue as Baji Rao II, Peshwa of Poona, plots to free himself from the grip of the British East India Company.  Captain Robert McKenzie sees the woman, Lakshmi, Rani of Satara, as a dark-skinned barbarian but nevertheless a means of redemption following a lapse in honor at Waterloo. A child-bride at age seven, now a rebellious teenager faced with the consummation of her marriage to the Raja of Satara, Lakshmi sees in Robbie's gallantries (empty and meaningless to any European) the romantic devotion of man for woman she has read about but never known.  The novel traces the compelling story of this mismatched pair as the clouds of war engulf them.