Red Horse (An Uncivil War Book 1)

The English Civil War, 1642.
The King raises his standard at Nottingham, and Captain Holofernes Babbitt is encouraged to raise his, by the commander in chief of the Army of Parliament, the Earl of Essex.

Being Hollie - angry, miserable, hard done-to, ungovernable Lancashire boy with a shady past as a mercenary in Eurooe and a chip on his shoulder the size of Worcestershire - he won’t be told what to do by Essex. (Even if Essex does pay his wages. Which is the sort of attitude that’s got him into trouble before….)
He doesn’t take kindly to Essex palming off a spy in his camp, although a less likely spy than gentle, kind, all round good egg Luce Pettitt - who happens to be a distant cousin of Essex’s first wife - you would go a long way to meet.

But you know how these things go.

You get a sweet, dreamy, innocent young man, and you put him in harness with a ragged, cynical mercenary.
(Who might be neither as old nor as cynical as he lets on.)
Drop him in the middle of a brutal war without an enemy, and he’s going to have to grow up fast. Find his feet. Become a competent, capable officer.
Not get killed.

Or at least, one of them will.

Who’d have thought principles could be so contagious?