Society in England is most unforgiving of a reversal of fortune, as Miss Caroline Morton, left penniless after her father's suspicious death, knows all too well. Once a lady, now a lady's companion, she is still enmeshed in the settling of the earl's estate-and soon murder as well-in this "charming cross between a Regency romance and a well-constructed detective story" (Kirkus Reviews) for of Victoria Thompson, C.S. Harris, and Deanna Raybourn.
Distraught over her younger sister Susan's decision to leave for America and weary of shepherding her employer Mrs. Frogerton's daughter in her relentless pursuit of marrying a peer, Caroline is dealt another blow when her family solicitors indicate they may have found the lost heir to the Morton earldom.
Possible heir Thomas, his mother Mrs. Scutton, and her widowed daughter Mary all descend on Mrs. Frogerton's home on Half Moon Street. The air inside the house is soon thick with family tension and the near palpable presence of avarice. But things go from tense to tragic following the appearance of Mary's dead husband-very much alive and recently released from debtors' prison. Unseen by Caroline and Mrs. Frogerton, a fight breaks out upstairs, leaving Mary fatally stabbed and her mother wounded.
The manhunt is on for Mary's husband, led by Inspector Ross. But both Caroline and Mrs. Frogerton begin to suspect that all is not as it seems The Scuttons have brought more than trouble into the home-they may be harboring secrets that could put Caroline and Mrs. Frogerton's very lives at risk . . .
