A Touch of Treason

Available Late 2005

It is London, 1809 and in the Yardley household Miss Eilith Marshfield’s governessing and household management skills are being taxed to the full. The Yardleys are wealthy merchants and Eilith’s background as an erstwhile member of the nobility is her value to them.

For Eilith is forced to earn her own living. Thanks to her father’s sudden, uncharacteristic gambling spree her family has lost everything – their home, their futures and their friends. Worst of all, John Marshfield gave scant thought as how his children were to settle his outstanding debts when he shot himself – in a writing room at Whites, if you please.

But Eilith and her brother Robert are made of sterner stuff than their parent. Robert joins the army and Eilith, resolving not to be a charge upon her brother, elects (not without qualms) to be a governess. Although her first appointment at a ‘seminary for young ladies’ is stultifyingly boring, her second appointment as governess/companion to the Yardley girls is definitely NOT boring. She is housekeeper, chatelaine, organizer, social secretary, governess and linchpin to the unworldly Yardleys.

But when she meets cool, sophisticated Ivor Stafford she sees what might-have-been, and she has to grit her teeth and simply carry on, trying not to resent her father’s lapse.

But Ivor Stafford is not what he seems to be. He’s more – much more. He has secrets. Heavens, even chubby Mr Yardley has secrets. And when Eilith’s Nemesis catches up with her, all her deep-seated fears surface. Who can she trust?

Then Robert is brought home from the Peninsula grievously wounded and Eilith really learns about trust and honor.

EXCERPT FROM ‘A TOUCH OF TREASON’

As time passed she began to feel less sorry for herself and more determined to escape as soon as she had a chance to do so. Some time ago the rhythm of the coach-wheels had changed. There was no longer any noise of voices or horses’ hooves outside the coach and it was clear that they were leaving London behind. Locked into her own misery she had not taken note of the direction the coach was traveling in. In short, she had no idea at all of where they were.

She began to plan a campaign. Somehow she would get through this. Even if Elverton ruined her, she could still rely on Robert. Elverton probably had no idea that Robert was back in London. Why would he? She wished she knew why the Special Advisory Committee was interested in Lord Elverton. After all, the Committee was concerned primarily with the War on the Peninsula, rather than the questionable behavior of various members of the aristocracy.

Elverton suddenly spoke. “I’ve waited a long while to get you to myself Eilith Marshfield. How very fortuitous that I happened to notice you in the Square. You have a very distinctive walk you know,” he said conversationally, as if he were prepared to pass the time of day indefinitely. “Your walk is very brisk. You hold your head up high as if you were a member of the ton.” Then he snorted derisively. “An actor like your father was. He pretended to be a gentleman. But of course when things became difficult he could not act any longer. He chose the easy way out.”

Eilith, intending to say nothing, was unable to remain silent. “Easy way out!” she stormed. “Do you think death is easy?”

“Of course it is. It takes courage to live.”

Unexpectedly Eilith agreed with him. He was correct. If she did not have Robert to turn to after Elverton was finished with her, she did not know whether she would have the courage to kill herself. Without Robert, it might have been the only solution. She would not be the only young woman who chose that road. She nodded her head slowly.

“Come Eilith! We are agreed on something at last!” he said humorously. He had behaved in this whimsical manner sometimes when he had visited Marshfield Manor. She presumed he thought he was being charming. With her father he had at first been all friendly politeness, but later of course his manner had changed to a thinly veiled contempt. Robert he had hardly met and largely ignored. But with Eilith he had always maintained a watchful amusement, rather like a cat with a mouse.

Her disquiet returned and she hunched a shoulder away from him and settled her clothes about her. She thought it best to feign sleep.

This book can be purchased from Treble Heart Books ( www.trebleheartbooks.com) from about end of 2005.