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Overview
Major Richard Chancellor had been on some difficult assignments, but posing as a tutor to a respectable family had to be the most challenging. His task was to expose a traitor, but his instant awareness of Miss Pandora Compton, chatelaine of the estate, made the subterfuge increasingly difficult.
While Major Richard Chancellor was a very eligible parti, mild and scholarly Mr. Edward Ritchie, the tutor, was not. Although Pandora did seem to show a marked predilection for his company. How would she react when she learned of his deception?
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781426808463 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Harlequin |
| Publication date: | 10/10/2023 |
| Series: | Harlequin Historical Series , #224 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 299 |
| Sales rank: | 1,040,439 |
| File size: | 499 KB |
About the Author
Paula was born in Leicester and grew up in Nottingham. Her father, a mathematician who was gassed in the First World War and never really recovered his health, introduced her to a great many things. He taught her chess, cards, and painting, and had her reading Dickens and Thackeray by the age of 10.
Her great loves at school were history, English, and art; she found it difficult to decide whether she wanted to become the world's greatest novelist or the world's greatest painter!
After finishing school, she was employed as a research librarian, and studied for her library examinations after work. She spent many happy days among old works and papers, and remembers with affection working with the Byron collection at Newstead Abbey. This reading stood her in good stead when she began writing Regency romances— she had actually handled Byron's letters and possessions.
While working in the reference library, Paula met her future husband. He was also a librarian, and he returned to complete his fellowship after he was demobilized from the RAF. They were studying the same texts and decided to work together. The result was that he got his fellowship— while she got him!
Paula began a secondary career writing and lecturing on local history. Amongst other things, she lectured on Robin Hood and wrote a paper wherein she identified the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham.
Paula has three children, and when the third started school, she returned to work, beginning a new career as a part-time lecturer in English and general studies. After four years of teaching, it became necessary for her to gain a degree, and Paula did just that. She enrolled in theopenuniversity and spent the next four years earning a first class honors BA in history.
On retirement Paula took up painting again and even managed to sell a portrait of the popular soccer player Stuart Pearce, to Nottingham Forest Football Club. While on holiday in Arizona, Paula was finally urged to write the book she had been threatening to write since she was a child.
Paula gets great pleasure from writing historical romances where she can utilize her vast historical knowledge. She has lectured on everything in English history from the Civil War onwards, as well as U.S. and Russian history, 1760-1980, and the psychology of war and revolution. Paula and her husband have spent their holidays traveling the world, from the Arctic Circle, Scandinavia and Russia, around Europe, to the U.S.A. and New Zealand. She finds that nearly all of the romance novels she writes draw on this wealth of knowledge.
Read an Excerpt
'Miss it, do you?' drawled Russell Chancellor in the direction of his younger twin brother, Richard, who was busy reading the Morning Post. 'Being a soldier boy, I mean.'
Major Richard Chancellor of the Fourteenth Light Cavalry, always known as Ritchie to his friends and family, looked up. Russell was lying lazily in a large armchair, both booted legs on a foot stool, a glass of something or other at his elbow. He was dressed to kill, the most celebrated dandy in London. With his stunning good looks, his bright golden curls, wind-swept in the latest fashion. and his athletic physique, he had broken the heart of nearly every young woman in London, and was, in consequence, the envy of every young man.
The twins, both in their late twenties, were not identical ones, so Ritchie resembled his brother not at all. He was as severe and dark as his brother was bright and fair, and the flamboyance which came naturally to Russell was missing in him. His dress was moderate as was his manner. His eyes were grey, and a little piercing; he was as athletic as his brother and a better rider and, until he was injured, had been campaigning in Spain as a staff officer in Wellington's army there.
His injuries had been severe enough to result in his being seconded to the War Department in London to act as what Russell rudely referred to as a senior clerk.
Ritchie, always a silent creature, had never talked about how he had acquired his injuries. Perhaps, his twin had decided, he would be happier in his temporary Government appointment than he had been as a serving officer. After all, his original wish had been to take up a scholarly career, except that their father, the Earl of Bretford, had forbidden it and demanded that he be a soldier.
'It has been the habit of the Chancellor family for the last two hundred years to send their younger sons to defend the realm in which we live,' he had roared. 'I have no mind to be the first to break that rule, seeing that I am not likely to have any more sons to give to my country.'
So Ritchie had done his duty, and had pursued his bent for scholarship as privately and quietly as he did everything.
He said now, 'Yes, I do, but we cannot always have what we wish—which was a lesson I learned early. The only problem at the moment is that, after being a soldier, a quiet life in a bureau or office is somewhat boring.'
'I never thought that you would enjoy being a soldier,'said Russell frankly. 'On the other hand, I do know that whatever you do, you do well. So I suppose you will succeed in Whitehall in the end.'
Ritchie, putting his newspaper carefully down on a boulle table, smiled suddenly. His brother wished that he would do so more often. It quite transformed his over-serious face.
'Well, there's a compliment from you I didn't expect, and returned
shook his head at his brother. were times when he wished to live a life of total pleasure. he decided to settle down? at his late wife, 'I wish that and Ritchie a little of I suppose, make two perfect I know, an impossibility!' not his, and meantime he Sidmouth wanted of him. He had been a boy and Sidmouth Pitt's rival: he wondered him, but doubted it.
* * *
Sidmouth's office was as large and beautiful as befitted a man who was in charge of England's security in the middle of a major war. M'lord came round his desk to greet Ritchie warmly.
'I don't suppose that you remember that we met some years ago when you were only a boy. You asked me a learned question about the role of elephants in Hannibal's war with Rome. I heard later that you had become a cavalry officer— making do with horses in lieu of elephants, eh?'
'Elephants were in short supply in Spain, sir, I do admit,' replied Ritchie, wondering what all this chit-chat was leading up to. He doubted that he had been summoned to Whitehall to talk about tactics in Carthage's war with Rome.
Nor had he, for after he had accepted a glass of port and a comfortable chair, Sidmouth rapidly came to the point.
'I have sent for you, Chancellor, to ask if you will undertake for your country at home the kind of service which I understand that you performed for Wellington in Spain and Portugal. Yes, I know that you were a cavalry officer who behaved gallantly on the field of battle, but I am also aware of something which is not generally known: that you were a member of Wellington's intelligence service and acted as a liaison officer with groups of Spanish guerillas when the occasion demanded. While doing so you were captured by the French, and your command of Spanish, as well as your bravery, was such that you succeeded in deceiving them as to your true nationality. Not, however, before you had been severely injured during repeated questioning, so that when you managed to escape with your information Wellington recommended that you be sent home on furlough in order to recover your health as a reward for the vital information which you had provided him.'
Ritchie's face was, for once, a picture. 'I shall not ask you,' he said at last, 'how you came to learn of this, m'lord, but I would like to know what bearing it has on my work here in London.'
'I know,'said Sidmouth, 'because I was told that if I should ever need a resourceful and courageous man to carry out a difficult task, then I ought to be aware that one existed in Horse Guards. It has recently come to my knowledge that the amount of smuggled goods entering this country illegally has become a veritable torrent. The loss to the Customs and Excise department is enormous: not only that, but we have reason to believe that French agents are entering the country through ships secretly docking on the Sussex coast.
'Sadly, many otherwise good citizens find it amusing, as well as profitable, to betray their country not only by engaging in this trade, but also by keeping the names of the smugglers and their means of distributing the goods a secret. It is almost impossible for us to discover some genuine information about their activities.As you must know, smuggling is in breach of the Continental blockade which the Navy is attempting to enforce and which forbids trade with our enemy France and her allies—so those participating in the trade are, in effect, traitors.
'What we need is to have on the spot someone used to covert operations, who is unknown to the organisers—and also to the Revenue officers, some of whom, I fear, have been bribed to help the criminals, for that is what they are. Someone who can try to identify not only where the goods are coming in, but also who is behind the trade. Now you would fit the bill perfectly. You could go there in some innocent capacity and keep your ears and eyes open.'
Ritchie put down his wine glass, saying, 'I shall, of course, accept such a task, if that is what you and my superiors in the Horse Guards wish, my lord. Alas, however, I know no one in Sussex or its neighbouring counties. As you must be aware my father's estates are all in the North, and I have few friends in England—those I do have are still with Wellington.'
'No matter,' said Sidmouth. 'By pure chance I have an excellent disguise for you. I heard only the other night, through my sister, that Lady Leominster has asked her friends if they could recommend a reliable tutor for Sir John Compton's grandson, Jack, a boy aged thirteen. Sir John's estate is in Sussex and lies between Lewes and the sea. I understand that, added to your other accomplishments, you are also an excellent scholar. My suggestion is that I ask my sister to speak to Lady Leominster immediately and suggest that she recommends you to her friend. Apparently they are experiencing difficulty in finding someone reliable.
'Your presence there would thus not in any way be remarked on since no one would think that a tutor posed any threat to anyone—other, of course, than to his charge! Should you agree to undertake this mission, we must find you a name and an innocent address for you to write to should you wish to pass information on urgently. I fear that it is likely that there is no one in the neighbourhood you can trust, not even the local magistrates. What is your answer to my proposition, Major Chancellor?'
Ritchie smiled to himself and thought: I was saying to myself not long ago that my life had become somewhat boring. This offer seems certain to enliven it.
Aloud he said, 'That I am ready to undertake this enterprise, my lord. I cannot promise you success, but I shall do my best. May I suggest that I adopt as a surname my own nickname, which is Ritchie. I shall thus have no difficulty in answering to it. If you agree, I shall be Edward Ritchie, an unassuming and innocent pen-pusher. Edward is my second Christian name.'
'Excellent,' said Sidmouth warmly. 'We will set up an accommodation address for you immediately. I doubt that you will be in any real danger, but it might be as well for you to go warily.'
Ritchie smiled again. 'Oh, that's my habit, m'lord. I am not one for derring-do, whatever you may have been told.'
If Sidmouth thought that the young man before him was being over-modest, he did not say so. Instead, he rose and offered Ritchie his hand, something rarely done. 'I shall inform you when the news arrives that Sir John will interview you. I take it that you still have your Latin and Greek?'
'Enough to convince anyone that I am what I claim to be.'
'Good luck go with you, then.'
It was over, and while leaving by the servants' entrance so as not to be seen at the Home Office, Ritchie thought that for better or worse he had undertaken something which might remind him of what he had lost when he had left the Army.
One thing he had already decided on: he would pose as a timid soul, and would arrange to buy some plain-glass spectacles—one would expect a tutor to be both short-sighted and retiring.
'Really, Aunt, I could well have done without having to entertain half the county this afternoon. Mr Ritchie, Jack's new tutor, is due to arrive this morning. Rice is asking me to check his books again, and William's arrangement this afternoon to host a grand get-together with a pack of people with whom I have nothing in common could not have come at a worse time. To say nothing of what the get-together will cost in money which we haven't got.'
'Now, Pandora, do not carry on so. A get-together will do you good. It is time that you wore a pretty toilette and had your hair dressed properly.'
'That does it, that is the outside of enough,' exclaimed Pandora. 'I have no time for such frippery, so I shall not attend at all. You may act as hostess, and you may offer what excuse best pleases you to account for my absence.'
'No such thing, Pandora,' began her aunt, cursing her own tactlessness. She wondered which had annoyed her niece the more: speaking of having her hair dressed or of her wearing a pretty toilette instead of stalking about in something which a servant would be ashamed to wear.
She was about to continue when the butler, old Galpin, wandered in, his head hanging as usual.
'There's a Mr Ritchie arrived to see you,'he mumbled. 'He says that he's come to be Master Jack's tutor. I've put him in the library.'
'The library!' exclaimed both women together of the room which Pandora's father, Simon, had looted of most of its treasures in order to raise a little more money to pay for his rowdy life.
'Oh, did I do wrong, Miss Pandora?' he muttered looking more downcast than ever.
'No, as well there as anywhere,' replied Pandora and, with a last fling at her aunt, called out when she passed her, 'You may be sure that I shall be absent this afternoon,' she left to interview the man whom Lady Leominster had found for them.
One more person for her to worry about. It was to be hoped that he would be experienced enough to be able to tame Jack, who was at present confined to the schoolroom for running off with the cook's boy to swim in the overgrown lake in the once-beautiful park, regardless of the fact that he had been told never to do any such thing.