No proper lady goes in search of scandalous on dits. When those on dits land on one’s own doorstep what is a lady to do? Why, share them, of course!
Whilst not in possession of the details, that certainly won’t stop me from telling all I have observed from a few casual hours watching my neighbors. Having a footman to open the windows just enough to allow the breeze and the conversation to flow into each room is most efficacious.
There is increased activity at the St. James Square home of Lady Camilla Bowles Attington Carrington Whitby. (How pretentious is she to have buried three wealthy husbands? Any lady of good breeding would have stopped at two and left at least one of them to the rest of us.) Her nephew, Lionel Carrington-Bowles, has had a scandalous reputation for years, he and those friends of his. Captain Atherton, who paints those naughty portraits. The barrister, Mr. Forsythe, who has had as many lovers as he has won cases before the King’s Bench. That frightening Bow Street Runner, Archer Colwyn. I cannot begin to tell you what I have heard about his bedchamber adventures!
Speaking of bedchambers, I have it on excellent authority (my own, of course) these four have done something which may create a ripple of scandal throughout London. This impending disaster includes the sinful bookshop run by the Duke of Chelmsford’s brother, a lost journal that names names, the search for said journal, and most frightening, the proprietor of Goodrum’s House of Pleasure!
The pirate queen, Captain El, has been in and out of Lady Camilla’s townhouse in the night (thank goodness for gas lighting on St. James Square.) Lady Honoria Eveleigh was seen with Captain Atherton, alone! Mr. Forsythe called upon Lord Trevellyn’s mysterious widow not during calling hours. Broad sheets are full of horrific murders that have something to do with chess masters and blood rituals, and Mr. Colwyn of Bow Street has been seen challenging the masked chess mistress in residence at, of all places, Goodrum’s.
What does this have to do with a missing journal? From the desperate measures these four scoundrels have taken? Everything! London is rife with rumors of kidnappings, London’s foremost barristers in a remote village up to heaven knows what, brawls at the Earl of Livingston’s exclusive club on Bruton Street. (So I have heard. I have no idea if such a place even exists.) Reports of gunfire at the home of Mrs. Julia Amherst, a widow of unimpeachable morals. Much of this activity takes place under cover of night and even with the gas lighting the view from my windows doesn’t allow me to see everything. More’s the pity.
One hopes these young men will find said journal soon. These chess murders are unsettling. Murder isn’t the done thing in our part of London. So undignified. Such a mess for the servants to clean up. All over some lost journal and the bedchamber antics of four of the most notorious…
Captain Atherton and Mr. Forsythe have just come out of Lady Camilla’s. Do open the window, John. I cannot hear a word they are saying.
More to follow, dear friends!
Lady Gladys Kravitz
About Claiming the Chess Mistress: By night, she’s a masked chess mistress who challenges and trounces all takers; by day, she’s the ethereal white-blonde beauty who volunteers at the children’s refuge in Seven Dials — Charlotte Smythe lives a luxurious double life of ease as the mysterious chess genius at Goodrum’s House of Pleasure..
After spending years as a gifted investigator extricating others from their peccadillos, dedicated Bow Street runner Archer Colwyn has landed in a suds of his own making. The light-hearted journal of sensual exploits he and his school chums kept while students at Cambridge has gone missing, and the secrets within his particular pages, if revealed, could set off deadly consequences.
The dangerous Captain El Goodrum, proprietress of the most infamous house of pleasure in London, holds the key to their retrieval. In exchange for her cooperation, she demands he run a gauntlet of secrets to deliver a master criminal to justice. His only path to the damning pages is the inscrutable chess mistress who not only resents his attempts to romance away his journal pages, but seems to relish his dread and panic at the prospect of the pages becoming public knowledge.
Charlotte craves the kind of refuge she provides to the orphans she rescues from London’s stews. The respite she seeks away from the world in her St. John’s Wood villa with her two house companions is all that keeps her sane, but sometimes, late at night, she needs something more, something even she cannot name.
Excerpt: “Madame Goodrum, there is a good deal about me of which you are unaware. Many others have underestimated me…” He paused a long, silent moment before finally uttering, “At their own peril.”
“Ah, but there you are wrong. I don’t know whom you’ve dealt with in the past, but I see no peril in front of me now.”
“What do you see?” He leaned close again, his voice tense.
“I see a man desperate to reclaim something which could harm someone very close and dear to him.”
He jerked back as if seared by flames.
“Ah, yes. Now you see – I understand fully what is at stake here.” She kept her voice low and soothing, but she was sure he hadn’t missed the meaning of her words. His eyes had widened and he’d sucked in a sharp breath.
Even though she was certain she’d shattered his nerve, he straightened and demanded, “Stop baiting me. Just tell me. What is it you want?”
She slid a leather portfolio across the desk. “Read the papers inside and then bring me proof of the elimination of the man they concern.” She then placed an expensive vellum card into his hand. “This woman is the key to the return of your journal pages. She’s unlike any other woman you’ve ever encountered, so do not think to deal with her the same way you’d deal with the simpering females of your acquaintance.”
He took the card and studied the expensive, gilded printing.
She knew by heart what was on the carefully crafted card: “Madame Domino, Chess Mistress Extraordinaire” Beneath the name were gold edged letters for four nights of the week – Tuesday through Friday. The bottom line was stamped with the symbol of Goodrum’s House of Pleasure – a ship under full sail, flying a pennant etched with a tiny skull and crossbones. The card was the face of the lucrative worldwide business El had built with her own blood and sweat. The hard-won empire was hers to use as she pleased.
When he made to pluck the card from her grasp, she tightened her hold. “If you take this card, you are bound by your word to deliver this man to justice.” She gave the leather bag between them an ominous tap.
He snatched the card from her grasp and shouldered the bag before heading back out through her office door. He said nothing further. He didn’t have to.
She’d successfully leveraged the deeply held secret that could destroy not only him, but his sole reason for continuing to walk among the living.
Available now: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CBZSCCXL
Connect with Louisa & Andrea:
LOUISA
https://www.facebook.com/RegencyWriterLouisaCornell
https://www.pinterest.com/louisacornell/
https://www.amazon.com/Louisa-Cornell/e/B00PYZQOA6/ref=aufs_dp_fta_dsk
https://www.instagram.com/louisacornell/
ANDREA
http://www.facebook.com/AuthorAndreaKStein
https://www.facebook.com/groups/andreaksteinsfeistyheroines
https://www.instagram.com/author_andrea_k_stein/
https://www.pinterest.com/highseasromance/men-of-the-squadron/
For more book talk, content available nowhere else, and occasional fun rewards, sign up for my newsletter here:
https://www.AndreaKStein.com/sign-up/
LOUISA CORNELL BIO
After retiring from a European career as an opera singer, Louisa returned to her first love, writing Regency romance. A two-time Golden Heart finalist, three-time Daphne du Maurier winner, and four-time Royal Ascot winner—she is a member of RWA, Southern Magic RWA, and Regency Fiction Writers. She is both indie published and published by Scarsdale Publishing. Her first published work, the novella A Perfectly Dreadful Christmas from Christmas Revels, won the 2015 Holt Medallion. Her novel A Study in Passion won the historical romance mid-length category of RWA’s 2021 Vivian Award.
ANDREA K. STEIN BIO
The daughter of a trucker and an artist, she never knew it would take the hard-work ethic of her father to achieve the light-filled magic of her mother’s art. She grew up a scribbler. The stories just spilled out. A newspaper and publishing professional for thirty years, she ran away to sea for three years, delivering yachts to the Caribbean, earning a USCG offshore captain’s license. Now, she writes about love and adventure on the high seas from her writing room in Colorado. The first of the Men of the Squadron series, Pride of Honor, was a finalist in the RWA Beau Monde Chapter’s coveted Royal Ascot Contest. Rhum Bay, a prequel to the Men of the Squadron, snagged First Place in Romance in the Colorado Pikes Peak Writers Fiction Contest.
Leave a Reply