The Highwayman's Footsteps by Nicola Morgan

A “sequel” to the Noyes poem, The Highwayman’s Footsteps is based on the idea that the highwayman and his lover have a daughter, Bess, who becomes a highwaywoman herself, and meets Will, the runaway son of a nobleman who ran away from home rather than join his cruel father’s evil militia. From the limited descriptions available, I had expected the book to be from Bess’s perspective, but it’s actually Will’s first person POV, though much of it is Will learning about and dealing with his sexism and classism, with Bess sometimes his pragmatic and reluctant partner, and sometimes more representing a mythic figure.

The prose starts off oldfashioned and eventually morphs into more modern prose that maintains the flavor. I found it a bit heavyhanded the first chapter or so, but then it became more engaging. The book isn’t revolutionary, but it’s fun and has some interesting, if more minor, deconstructive elements, and both embraces the romanticism of the period and criticizes other aspects of it. There’s a sequel, but it doesn’t appear to be available in the US. Everything that needs to be wrapped up is, and I probably wouldn’t have wondered if there was a connected book if I hadn’t gone to Amazon to see what Morgan’s other books sounded like.