The Rebel and the Runaway — Chris Thorndycroft

England, 1746. A wild land sown with the seeds of rebellion. A time when loyalty is bought dear and life sold cheap. When fifteen-year-old Alice Sinclair runs away from home she embarks on a perilous quest for acceptance in a world bound by prejudice and hypocrisy. Her journey leads her to the White Hart; a grubby inn on the border between Hampshire and Sussex where she finds employment as a barmaid. Alice is at first frightened by the rough clientele but gradually comes to accept them as friends and develops a strong bond with one of them - Will Carter - a dark and dangerous man whose brooding nature masks his true passions. What Alice doesn't realize is that her new companions are members of the notorious Hawkhurst Gang; the most feared and violent group of smugglers in all England. She soon finds herself adrift in a maelstrom of murder and betrayal and is forced to question her loyalties when she discovers a connection between the man she loves and the Jacobite uprising against the Crown. On the run, in peril and torn between family and love, Alice's story is one of passion and defiance, entwined with one of England's most shocking murder cases. Based on true events