Moonlight Masquerade
The year is 1813. Spies and counterspies are everywhere in London as Napoleon has regained power in France and royalist émigrés in England plot against him. Lady Celine Wexham, a French widow from a British marriage, is a spy for Napoleon’s friends, and she is attracted to her new butler Rees Phillips. He has been planted in her house by the British Foreign Office to discover for whom she is spying. As he attempts to play the butler role in her fashionable townhouse and country home, he finds himself falling in love with her. She, in turn, finds his presence irresistible, and the tension in their relationship leads to their common discovery of their mutual Christian faith in duty and forgiveness.
The novel provides a wealth of Regency period detail and accurate historical references. Axtell excels in setting each scene within the historical context of the time so that the reader feels the entire scene come to life. This is a delightful novel with a very happy and satisfying ending.
