The Paris Plot (8 page)

T
ERESA
G
RANT
studied British history at Stanford University and received the Firestone Award for Excellence in Research for her honors thesis on shifting conceptions of honor in late-fifteenth-century England. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her young daughter and three cats. In addition to writing, Teresa works for the Merola Opera Program, a professional training program for opera singers, pianists, and stage directors. Her real-life heroine is her daughter, Mélanie, who is very cooperative about Mummy’s writing. Teresa is currently at work on her next book chronicling the adventures of Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch. Visit her on the Web at
www.teresagrant.com
.

 

When Intelligence Agent Malcolm Rannoch proposes to Suzanne de Saint-Vallier, the tumult of the Peninsular War recedes—if only temporarily. For their union may have shattering consequences for the more fragile partnership between Britain and Spain. But meanwhile, let the celebrations begin....

 

K
ENSINGTON
P
UBLISHING
C
ORPORATION AND
A
UTHOR
T
ERESA
G
RANT
REQUEST THE HONOUR OF YOUR PRESENCE
AT THE MARRIAGE OF
SUZANNE
DE
SAINT-VALLIER
TO
MALCOLM RANNOCH
THE
S
EVENTH OF
D
ECEMBER 1812
B
RITISH
E
MBASSY,
L
ISBON
*INTRIGUE AND UNFORESEEN OCCURRENCES EXPECTED*

 

 

Europe’s elite have gathered at the glittering Congress of Vienna—princes, ambassadors, the Russian tsar—all negotiating the fate of the Continent by day and pursuing pleasure by night. Until Princess Tatiana, the most beautiful and talked-about woman in Vienna, is found murdered during an ill-timed rendezvous with three of her most powerful conquests....

Suzanne Rannoch has tried to ignore rumors that her new husband, Malcolm, has also been tempted by Tatiana. As a protégé of France’s Prince Talleyrand and attaché for Britain’s Lord Castlereagh, Malcolm sets out to investigate the murder and must enlist Suzanne’s special skills and knowledge if he is to succeed. As a complex dance between husband and wife in the search for the truth ensues, no one’s secrets are safe, and the future of Europe may hang in the balance....

 

 

Nights filled with lavish balls . . . lush, bucolic afternoons.... Removed to glamorous Brussels in the wake of Napoleon’s escape from Elba, Intelligence Agent Malcolm Rannoch and his wife, Suzanne, warily partake in the country’s pleasures. But with the Congress of Vienna in chaos and the Duke of Wellington preparing for battle, the festivities are cut short when Malcolm is sent on a perilous mission that unravels a murderous world of espionage....

No one knows what the demure and respectable Lady Julia Ashton was doing at the château where Malcolm and a fellow British spy were ambushed. But now her enigmatic life has been ended by an equally mysterious death. And as the conflict with Napoleon marches towards Waterloo and Brussels surrenders to bedlam, Suzanne and Malcolm will be plunged into the search for the truth—revealing an intricate labyrinth of sinister secrets and betrayal within which no one can be trusted....

 

 

In the wake of the battle of Waterloo, Paris is a house divided. The triumphant Bourbons flaunt their victory with lavish parties, while Bonapartists seek revenge only to be captured and executed. Amid the turmoil, British attaché and Intelligence Agent Malcolm Rannoch and his wife, Suzanne, discover that his murdered half-sister, Princess Tatiana Kirsanova, may have borne a child—a secret she took to the grave. And Malcolm suspects there was more than mere impropriety behind her silence....

As Malcolm and Suzanne begin searching for answers, they learn that the child was just one of many secrets Tatiana had been keeping. The princess was the toast of Paris when she arrived in the glamorous city, flirting her way into the arms of more than a few men—perhaps even those of Napoleon himself—and the father must be among them. But in the mêlée of the Napoleonic Wars, she was caught up in a deadly game, and now Malcolm and Suzanne must race against time to save the child from a similar fate....