Lips That Spell Consent — John Gabriel

One night, at the time of Napoleon's first campaign in Italy, a French hussar who had been sent to the rearguard with a message is returning to rejoin his regiment in the Piemonte when he comes across a rambling frame house by the roadside in the forest near the town of Mondovi. He dismounts, approaches the house holding his horse by the reins. A woman comes onto the porch holding an oil lamp in her hand. She's not Italian. Her French, her manners, the way she looks, could well place her in Paris, not there in the forest. In France the Reign of Terror ended not long ago. Little does the French hussar realize that a thrilling story has just begun to unfold, of love, sorrow, incest, crime, and ever-present danger. Written in a realistic style with a romantic quality and a hint of the fantastic, Lips that Spell Consent portrays human beings in their most trying hour.