Category: Teatime Tattler Page 7 of 154

Shocking Jewel Heist at the Mivart! Heiresses Robbed, Auction Ruined, and One Gentleman Mysteriously Missing…

By Alina K. Field

On November 19, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

THE TEATIME TATTLER

Serving Scandal Steeped in Truth (or Close Enough)

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION FROM OUR MOST IMAGINATIVE CORRESPONDENT

Dearest Readers,

As your devoted servant in all things scandalous and sparkling, I regret to inform you that yesterday’s highly anticipated auction at the Mivart Hotel was nearly undone by a brazen theft of the entire Lady Babbage jewelry collection—yes, you read that correctly, the entire collection!—mere hours before bidding was set to begin.

The glittering assortment of sapphires, diamonds, and heirloom tiaras had been intended to fund the futures (read: dowries) of Lady Babbage’s most promising daughters, Lady Cecilia and—well—me. Needless to say, I had a rather vested interest in those jewels remaining securely fastened to their velvet-lined display boxes.

Theft aside, the real mystery is this: where was my elder sister, Lady Cecilia Babbage, during the precise time of the robbery? Witnesses place her gliding from the gardens into the ballroom not long before the crime was discovered, cheeks flushed, hair slightly mussed, and accompanied by her dashing fiancé. Curious, no?

But what’s more, that very fiancé is now under suspicion for the theft, even though another certain gentleman of questionable profession (rumored to possess excellent cheekbones and an even more scandalous past) was seen slipping into a second-floor chamber minutes earlier—and hasn’t been seen since.

Of course, I would never suggest my sister is involved in anything improper. Perish the thought! But one does wonder how a quiet young lady with a fondness for Greek poetry and lace gloves could suddenly develop such… resolve in defending her beloved. Or such suspiciously effective lock-picking skills.

The stolen jewels remain unaccounted for, the auction was postponed, and Mama has taken to bed with a compress of lavender water and renewed threats to cancel all future suitors. Meanwhile, I have taken to writing for the Tattler, which frankly seems a far better use of my time than pretending to embroider while eavesdropping in drawing rooms (though I shall, of course, continue to do both).

Until the truth is revealed, I shall be watching. Very closely. And taking notes. Possibly from under a fern.

With admiration for your appetite for intrigue,

Miss E.B. (Yes, that E.B.—but do keep it between us)

It Takes a Spy

Step back in time to London in 1851, where Lady Cecilia’s world is turned upside down when a thief steals the jewelry collection her parents had planned to auction to fund her dowry. Cecilia’s future seemed bright following her engagement to Devin Montlake, but disaster strikes when he is framed for the crime. With society’s rules hindering their every move, it’s up to Cecilia to clear his name and recover the stolen items before time runs out.

But as they race through the streets of London, Cecilia, her sister, and Devin are faced with unexpected twists and turns. Will they be able to outsmart the real culprit and reclaim the jewelry before it’s too late?

Join them for a rollicking adventure filled with intrigue, romance, and suspense.If you enjoyed books like “The Thief Who Stole My Heart” or “A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder,” then you’ll love “It Takes a Spy.” Don’t wait, buy now before the price changes! Tropes✓ HEA✓ Victorian Romance✓ M/F✓ Her POV✓ Jewel Heist✓ Family issues✓ Sisters✓ Romantic✓ Friends to lovers✓ Victorian✓ Aristocrats✓ Historical✓ Standalone in SeriesTrigger Warning: Mild swearing, Open door love scene, M/F.

It Takes a Spy is Book 1 in Sheridan Jeane’s Secrets and Seduction Series…THE SECRETS AND SEDUCTION SERIES (can be read as standalones)Book 0.5 – Lady Cecilia is Cordially Disinvited for ChristmasBook 1 – It Takes a Spy…Book 2 – Lady Catherine’s SecretBook 3 – Once Upon a SpyBook 4 – My Lady, My SpyBook 5 – Along Came a Spy

You can also find Sheridan’s newest story Duke By Dawn in the anthology Dukes All Night Long on Amazon: https://readerlinks.com/l/5074464

LINKS:

Amazon Purchase Link for It Takes a Spy: https://readerlinks.com/l/5074462

Free Prequel (Lady Cecilia is Cordially Disinvited for Christmas): https://readerlinks.com/l/5074463

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheridanjeane/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SheridanJeane/

Website:https://www.sheridanjeane.com

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/search/authors?search=sheridan%20jeane

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=sheridan+jeane&qid=hgzCxQuCuB

Dragonblade Publishing: https://www.dragonbladepublishing.com/?s=sheridan+jeane

About Sheridan Jeane:

Award winning author Sheridan Jeane loves books, writing, cats, and history, so writing historical romances is right up her alley. She read constantly as a child, and while at summer camp, her father built a bookcase wall in her bedroom to house them all!She’s pared down her collection after multiple moves, but still clings to the signed editions, which she cherishes.When she’s not writing, she’s probably working on home improvement projects or volunteering with a local volunteer-run charity, Child Health Association of Sewickley, raising money for children in southwestern Pennsylvania.

A Scandalous Widow Works her Wiles

By Alina K. Field

On November 15, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

Dear Reader,

The events of this Season have not disappointed! If you recall, the Teatime Tattler has previously reported on a young duke who caused a scene at Lady B’s recent ball.

Our latest news involves Lady B herself! The rumors of scandal touching her activities had quietened after Lord B’s death, but once again, the lady is stirring interest. Do read on:

Dear Mr. Clemens,

Just as the better families breathed a sigh of relief over the end of the sordid goings-on in one of the grandest homes in our generally respectable part of Hampshire, we are faced with more outrage.

Lady B, who disappeared for a time after the death of the earl (and a questionable death that was, even though our conscientious local magistrate did not wish to expose the area’s first family to further scandal) has reappeared at her late husband’s manor house, and this time in the company of the new Lord B!

You will know of course of the claims of a local marquess that the late earl changed his will to disinherit Lady B. Rumors abound that she somehow laid hands on and destroyed that new will.

The better families have tried to warn the new Lord B of her intrigues, but he is showing all the signs of having succumbed to her wiles. In fact, he is even claiming that whatever happens regarding her inheritance, she will continue to be under his protection.

The brazenness is confounding. I shall write again with more news soon.

Your faithful correspondent,

Mrs. J.

Her Impeccable Scoundrel

Anxious to save a cherished inheritance, Blythe Blatchfield, Countess of Chilcombe, knows she must repair her reputation with the Beau Monde in order to face the powerful marquess challenging her dissolute husband’s will. She vows to resist handsome rogues like her late husband, and to never again give her trust so blithely. But when the new earl, absent from England for many years, finally appears, new rumors swirl around Blythe. Facing the loss of everything, she finds herself needing the help of an old enemy, the man whose interference years earlier led to her unhappy marriage, the new Earl of Chilcombe.

Reluctantly returning to England from important duties abroad, diplomat Graeme Blatchfield has one bright hope: a chance to meet his late cousin’s widow again, to see if the rumors about the woman he once held a childish infatuation for are true. Having plunged into marriage with the last earl—Graeme’s fault for revealing their tryst in a vain attempt to rescue her—she’s been tainted by her husband’s decadent reputation. Rumors swirl in the men’s clubs about the new widow. Rumors that may or may not be true. Forced by matters of the estate to spend time together, he soon discovers the vulnerable and lonely woman underneath the society mask. Can he get her to forgive him—and more?

Preorder for the November 18th release: https://books2read.com/HerImpeccableScoundrel

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Alina K. Field earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and German literature but prefers the happier world of romance fiction. Her roots are in the Midwestern U.S., but after six very, very, very cold years in Chicago, she moved to Southern California where she shares a midcentury home with a golden-eyed terrier and a feisty chihuahua and only occasionally misses snow.

Social Media Links:

Website: https://alinakfield.com/

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A hermit duke on his way to London?

By Alina K. Field

On November 12, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

Dear Reader,

One could scarcely believe it unless one saw it, and fortunately, several very reliable tongues have already begun wagging. This author has it on the highest authority the Duke of Crane, society’s most recluse duke, on the road to London!

Should ladies ready their fans?

Not yet, I’m afraid. He was spotted traveling with a lady yet unknown!

This author needs your help, dear reader, so help spot this elusive duke again. Should you catch a glimpse of a tall, raven-haired gentleman with a stare dark enough to send hearts aflutter, do send word at once.

Carriage wheels turn, secrets rattle, and London waits with breath bated.

Keep your eyes sharp, dear reader. A shadow has left its haunt, and wherever he goes, scandal is certain to follow.

Your Devoted Gossipmonger

Beauty and the Lyon

A heart hidden in shadows. A beauty who dares to see.

Eternal optimist Lady Rosilee Fairchild refuses to let fate—or scheming rogues—dictate her future. When her brother is tricked into gambling away their estate and held prisoner by a ruthless man determined to force her into marriage, she takes matters into her own hands. Her solution? Find a husband of her own choosing before one can be chosen for her. And there’s only one place daring enough to help her do it without question—Mrs. Dove-Lyon’s infamous matchmaking den.

Hardened recluse Blake Faiththorne, Duke of Crane, has long been withdrawn from society, content to live in the shadows of his past. But when he learns that the woman who once saved him is now in danger herself—not only menaced by the worst sort of ruffian but on her way to the Lyon’s Den, a place dripping in scandal—he cannot stand idly by.

There is only one, big problem—though Blake has vowed never to marry himself, helping Rosilee find a husband leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. She is a flame in the dark, and he, despite all reason, is doomed to seek her radiance.

Can he break free from his haunted past and claim the woman who has always been his light? Or will old wounds and new dangers keep them apart forever?

Purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Lyon-Lyons-Connected-World-ebook/dp/B0F22G7SRH

About Tanya Wilde:

Award-Winning and International Bestselling author Tanya Wilde developed a passion for reading when she had nothing better to do than lurk in the library during her lunch breaks. Her love affair with pen and paper soon followed after she devoured all of their historical romance books!

When she’s not meddling in the lives of her characters or pondering names for her imaginary big, white greyhound, she’s off on adventures with her partner in crime.

Wilde lives in a town at the foot of the Outeniqua Mountains, South Africa.

Another Encroaching Caulfield

By Bluestocking Belles

On November 8, 2025

In Caroline Warfield, Teatime Tattler

Dear readers, new events have brought an old scandal, one you may have thought had faded into the shadows, back into the light.

You remember no doubt the immense uproar caused by the Earl of Clarion’s outrageous will, that named his, shall we say, “informal”, offspring. Worse was the furor caused when his son, the new earl, appeared to welcome the lot of them as if they were true siblings.

Recently, one Seth Caulfield, boldly bearing the earl’s surname, appeared in London wearing the uniform of a naval officer of sorts. One gathered he bore the rank of surgeon, a warranted rank, not one of a gentleman to be sure. He had the look of a Caulfield about him, however, and no sooner than he had appeared than he was welcomed to the earl’s table and given full support. It appeared that another one of the, if you’ll pardon our language, Clarion Bastards has appeared on the scene. (I apologize if ladies take offense but we do like to speak the truth, and the man is well, not legitimate at all.)

Loyalty is well and good, but really, should such a blot on the family escutcheon be been pushed forward? For that is what the earl did, introducing the man to some of society’s best as his brother and inviting him to social events and house parties. One even heard the family pushed him toward a university, no doubt to raise his status from mere surgeon to physician.

The highest sticklers did not, of course receive him. But then, the highest don’t approve of Clarion himself. The earl’s radical politics caused more outrage in recent years, quieting the old scandal.

At least the newest Caulfield seems to have done society a favor by withdrawing from London. Rumor has it he has gone off to some obscure village in the north to practice medecine. We can only hope he stays there!
*****

Seth Caulfield is the hero of “The Angel’s Announcement, a Holiday Homicide,” in Merry Belles, the Bluestocking Belles’ newest collection.

You can order it here: https://books2read.com/u/mvRGPj

About the Story

Sybilla Somer was seventeen when Seth Caulfield disappeared without a word. For nine long years she wondered why. Now he’s back and she needs his help to solve a murder. There is no one else to do it.

Seth hadn’t been much older when Sibby’s father and brother drove him out with shouts of “bloody presuming bastard.” They delivered him to press gangs in Great Yarmouth. He assumed she knew. She didn’t, and she certainly didn’t care that his birth was irregular. The navy set him to helping the ship’s surgeon, a stroke of luck. He has returned a warranted surgeon himself.

They found the shepherd eight days before Christmas. Dead. When Sybilla and Seth are thrown together to solve the murder, to care for a small angel with a broken ankle — and to face the hurt between them, will the work and the season heal what lies between them?

About the Author

Caroline Warfield, former army brat, librarian, traveler, history-lover, and storyteller is a Bluestocking Belle. The story of the Earl of Clarion’s Bastards, the new earl’s radical politics, and his reconciliation with his siblings was told in the Ashmead Heirs Series. “The Angel’s Announcement” brings a lovely addition to their ranks.

Leaves Instead of Roses? Our Bond Street Correspondent Spies a Duke with Designs

By Alina K. Field

On November 5, 2025

In Teatime Tattler

Dearest Readers,

Sharpen your quizzing glasses and pour the strongest Darjeeling, for London hums with a most diverting on-dit. The new Duke of Rotheworth—yes, the very one whose elevation arrived on the heels of a family disgrace—has returned to Town with something far more dangerous than a coronet: regret… and a particular lady on his mind.

Your obedient correspondent was positioned (purely by accident) behind a tower of ribbon at a certain Bond Street establishment when His Grace entered, unannounced and unescorted, carrying—do not swoon—a tidy packet of autumn leaves tied in satin. Leaves, my dears. Not roses, not orchids from Kew, but the very gold and crimson carpeting St. James’s Park. And to whom, you ask, did this rustic bouquet belong?

To Lady Charlene Fielding.

Now, Lady C is no feather-headed debutante. Since a certain gentleman of our acquaintance—Mr. David Cross as was Rotheworth’s twin brother, ahem—mislaid her trust some time ago, our lady has grown as sharp as a new hatpin and twice as difficult to dislodge. She laughs, she walks out with her friends, she minds her own fortune, and by all reports entertains no dukes, rakes, or anyone who answers to “Cross.”

Yet there he stood, a fallen Apollo with a ducal seal, presenting a ribbon-tied October to a woman who has wintered her heart to safety.

“Flowers are apologies,” a milliner’s girl whispered behind the counter. “Leaves are a promise. They say, I know what season you’re in.”

Do not be deceived by the gentleness of the token. This correspondent has it from a footman who keeps late hours (and an ear to keyholes) that the pair were observed in close conversation beneath an orangery lantern at last night’s small party in Mayfair. No raised voices; only the careful sort of silence that lives between two people who remember exactly what a kiss once cost.

Meanwhile, society lists bloom like Michaelmas daisies: three weddings in as many weeks, if our invitations are to be believed. Will Lady C add her name to the harvest? Or will she prove that a woman may prefer her independence to a title polished by penitence?

As for His Grace, those who have watched him take the cut direct with admirable composure swear he carries the look of a man who will not lose the same thing twice. Whether the lady will permit a second chance is another matter entirely. My recommendation to the ton: keep to the edge of the ballroom and do not blink when the leaves change again.

Your most faithful purveyor of harmless mischief,

A Lady’s Maid Who Knows Where the Pins Are Hidden

How To Seduce a Duke This Autumn

by Sara Adrien and Tanya Wilde

One scandal. One missed chance. One impossible love.

Lady Charlene Fielding has no interest in dukes, rakes—or anyone named Cross. Not after Adam Cross shattered her trust and vanished without a word. With the help of friends, laughter, and hard-won independence, she’s mended what he broke. She doesn’t need a man. Least of all him.

She vowed never to forgive him. He vowed never to give up.

Adam Cross never wanted a title—let alone his brother’s disgrace. But as the new Duke of Rotheworth, he returns to London with more than duty on his shoulders. He carries regret. And the memory of the one woman he let down. The one he still wants.

But winning her back won’t be easy.

She’s colder now. Sharper. And determined never to let him close enough to hurt her again.

But the Season is full of surprises.
Weddings bloom like wildflowers.
Old secrets resurface.
And one stolen kiss could undo everything.

Is love worth risking it all… again?

A full-length steamy Regency romance with a happily ever after, no cliffhangers, and plenty of heat, heartbreak, and redemption.

Tropes You’ll Love:
✔ Childhood Sweethearts
✔Friends to Lovers
✔ Second Chance Romance
✔ He Fell First
✔ Protective, Sexy Duke
✔ Stolen Kisses
✔ Dance Lessons
✔ Twin Brother Rivalry
✔ Secret Past
✔ Fireworks & First Kisses
✔ Found Family / Female Friendship Circle
✔ Autumn Romance

If you crave your Regency romance with emotional stakes, sizzling tension, and a hero who never stopped loving her—this is your next must-read.

Step into a world of glittering ballrooms, fiery attraction, and scandalous secrets in Book 3 of this steamy Regency romance series by #1 bestselling authors Sara Adrien and Tanya Wilde. Perfect for fans of enemies to lovers, sizzling chemistry, and revenge served with a smile. This captivating continuation is packed with witty banter, dangerous stakes, and a love that refuses to be tamed. While best enjoyed in order, this book can also be read as a standalone.

Read in Kindle Unlimited!

Note: This series is part of Dragonblade’s Flame line, so this is a scorching-hot read with open-door steam.

Wedding Fever Series
Book 1: Dare to Tempt an Earl This Spring
Book 2: How to Lose A Prince This Summer
Book 3: How To Seduce A Duke This Autumn
Book 4: Ways To Kiss A Marquess This Winter

Get the book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FT44P8GQ

Get the FREE companion book: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/4mrzm42ill

About the Author

Bestselling author Sara Adrien writes hot, heart-melting regency romance with a Jewish twist. As a law professor-turned-author, she writes about clandestine identities, whims of fate, and sizzling seduction. If you like unique and intelligent characters, deliciously sexy scenes, and the nostalgia of afternoon tea, then you’ll adore Sara Adrien’s tender tear-jerkers. She is the author of the series Infiltrating the Ton, Diamond Dynasty, Check Mates, and Miracles on Harley Street. Get 50% off her #1 bestselling 9-book bundle https://www.saraadrien.com/products/diamond-of-the-ton-collection-1

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