The Secrets of a Scoundrel
Early in the 19th century Nick, Baron Forrester, has been consigned to gaol by the Order he has previously served so well as a highly trained killer. His unforgiveable crime was a wish to abandon the Order and seek a life elsewhere. Nick is liberated from his prison cell by Virginia, Baroness Burke. Virginia (Gin) is the unrecognised daughter of Virgil, late master and controller of the Order of the Inferno Club. She has work for Nick, more dangerous than any he has previously undertaken: the release of innocent captive girls whose intended fate is the great Annual Bacchus Bazaar, a slave market infamous for depravity and greed. But each year it takes place at a new location. Surrounded by loathsome enemies, will devastatingly handsome black- haired Nick and the gorgeous red-haired Baroness discover this vital information with its deadly potential in time to carry out a rescue? Will their undeniable lust for one another transform into true love during a hair-raising journey to France and points East? A highlight is Nick’s encounter, outwitting the appallingly voracious Angelique by providing a desirable substitute victim.
Do not be overwhelmed by the deluge of cheeky anachronisms, robust use of cliché and mind-bending metaphors. This clever, prolific and enormously popular author knows precisely what she is about. And if Gin’s son, fifteen-year-old Phillip, Baron Burke persists in calling his noble mother ‘Mum’ maybe that was all the rage amongst the young gentlemen at an English public school at the time of the Regent.
