Maria Romine is the Owner/Artistic Director of Swords and Roses®. Maria has a BA in Theater and in Communications. She has been trained and is a member of the Society of American Fight Directors and studied voice under Cynthia Benavides for 12 years. When Maria is not running her business, she tours nationally as an actress for Theater of the Word, Inc. Maria will appear in two series on EWTN: The Theater of the Word, Inc. and The Quest for Shakespeare.

Angelique LaPrima LeFleur is the oldest daughter of wealthy merchant Pierre LeFleur and his wife Isabelle DeAuton of Lyon, France.

Angelique was first married to the elderly Baron Auguste DeWinter. It was a great match and promised to guarantee her father's entrance into the Baron DeWinter's social circle. Unfortunately, the Baron DeWinter passed into the next world on his wedding night. DeWinter's oldest son took over the estate and Angelique returned to her father and younger siblings. Angelique's sister, Belle, had married Marius Gaucher a carpenter of the village of Lyon. Belle's brother-in-law, Raoul Gaucher, struck a deal with Angelique's father, and after an exchange of a large sum of money and a title, and the passage of a proper but hasty time of mourning, Angelique found herself a bride again. Two weeks after saying “I do.” Raoul was off to fight in the war. Angelique was soon widowed again, giving her a bad reputation of being widowed too fast, too often. This reputation made it difficult for her father, Pierre, to arrange a third marriage and made it easier for Angelique to follow her heart. With the freedom to love whomever, Angelique became quite fickle, flitting from relationship to relationship, much to the consternation of her more responsible younger sister, Belle.

A few years ago (and despite her fear of water), Angelique fell in love with the most unlikely of individuals...the handsome Scotsman in a short kilt. Shamus McGyver Graham, Quartermaster of the notorious pirate ship The Bloody Scavenger. In order to be with her true love, Angelique disguised herself as a boy and boarded The Bloody Scavenger as Toulouse DeLong, the ship's navigator. Belle joined as the other navigator, her cousin, Lautrec DeShort. The two had many adventures sailing under the likes of Captain Caspian Jack Oceanus and Lord Duncan McFarlane. After putting the ship in land-lock one too many times, the “navigators” were stranded back in Lyon, France.

After a lucky game of cards, Lautrec won a ship so that the two sisters could continue to sail the seas that they had come to know and love. Ridding themselves of their boyish personas they became, Captain Belle and First Mate Angelique of the good ship the Bella Rosa. In her spare time, Angelique freelances for Captain Moira and any other pirate captain that will tolerate the zany French girl. Every once in a while Angelique commandeerss a ship of her own and has managed to convince Margarette Liddell to sail with her as her First Mate. The sea seas will never be the same.