SOLVED. Novel about twin brother ship builders and a Gypsy. [s]

[Kiriko]

Okay so I really really want to find this book, I've tried every single combination of one line sentences I could think of in Google.

[Apologies for my grammar and never ending sentences in advance]

I can't pinpoint the time frame but I would say it was set around the time manual wooden ship building was dying out. The father of the main character [The Good Twin] owned a ship building yard and the MC's love of ship building was important to the plot of the book.

The book is essentially about a pair of twin brothers who are almost identical but the good one was just slightly better than the bad twin. The book is set over (maybe) a 3 year period and is written in third-person omniscient and is (at my best estimation) over 260 pages long.

I remember the Bad Twin always wanted to take stuff from the good one or something like that but the good one falls for this bar maid whose father owns the pub but he had some sort of duty or something and he had to leave [maybe he joined the army can't really recall] but the good twin left and she was all sad but mostly because she wanted a comfortable life [and she could have been already pregnant] but she ends up with the Bad twin and forces him to marry her saying the baby is his.

But the Good twin eventually comes back and he is shocked because he really loved the barmaid but somehow he has disgraced his father. He moves out of the house and lives as a regular ship builder in the yard.

He rescues this hunched back girl from getting bullied and she turns out to have a mother and sister who will later be the MC's love interest. They are gypsies and know about healing and stuff. This is important to the story because the barmaid has a difficult birth and the baby had a broken arm at birth but the Mother gypsy manages to save the arm although it will never be used.

In the end there is an elaborate plot hatched by the bad twin and his barmaid wife to kill/ seriously injure the good twin but something happened with horses and the good twin survives and the bad twin ends up with a head injury and has a complete change of heart after that and then he behaves.

Finally there is a bit about the father remarrying a younger woman who has a son roughly the same age as the hunchback gypsy girl.

I can say for sure that there was a happy ending .... well not really, the book ends with the good twin and his father sailing off to France to rescue their France cousin sister [who the good twin is in an 'engagement to marry' with] who are in danger because of the revolution with the good twin promising to come back to his true love the gypsy girl.

I have a strong feeling it was written by a woman. Apart from that I read it nearly 10 years ago but it was bought in a garage sale so who knows how old it could have been.

Appreciate any suggestions you may have.

[Ayshe]

Adam Loveday by Kate Tremayne?
There's wikipedia article (stub): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Lo...

[Kiriko]

Ayshe wrote: "Adam Loveday by Kate Tremayne?
There's wikipedia article (stub): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Lo..."

THANKYOU!!!! sorry to shout but it's been an itch in my side for the longest time!!

I'm sure that's the book. Thanks again :-)

[Ayshe]

You're welcome! :)