“Well, it’s all over,” declared Anthea. “And I must say I trust you’re grateful for the hours of boredom I’ve endured listening to Mrs Cholmondeley in order to glean information for you!”
“Indeed I am — can you doubt it, dear niece?”
She looked at him suspiciously. “You have a vastly accomplished way of cozening people, you wretch!”
“Which you also possess. What of poor Sprog?”
She blushed.
“He’s the best of fellows, Anthea,” he said gently.
“I know.”
“Then — isn’t there any hope for him?” he ventured.
She hung her head. After a moment, she looked up, her fine hazel eyes bright with unshed tears.
“Yes, there is,” she replied in a low voice. “But pray, don’t urge me, Justin — it must be in my own good time, when I am ready! I want to do so many things, first — have adventures, see strange countries —”
He nodded sympathetically. “We’re alike in that, at least. I, too, don’t wish to be tied down. But it’s different for a female, of course. You’re not the stuff of old maids, chit!”
“That may be so, but I myself will decide,” she said firmly.
“So be it. Let us hope that Sprog will wait. No, very well, I don’t mean to tease you. As to seeing foreign parts, after I’ve browsed around here in Yorkshire among the splendid antiquities, I’m thinking of going off to visit my brother Hugh in Turkey — as you know, he’s in The Diplomatic Service. Would you care to come? Suitably chaperoned on the journey, of course, as your mama will insist, though Hugh’s wife can take over that responsibility when you’re with them. Little the poor female knows,” he added, with a grin. “Well, what d’you say?”
Anthea clapped her hands in delight.
“Why, that it’s the most splendid notion! I declare you’re not half so bad an uncle as one’s sometimes tempted to think!”
***
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A NOTE TO THE READER
It’s wonderful to see my mother’s books available again and being enjoyed by what must surely be a new audience from that which read them when they were first published. My brother and I can well remember our mum, Alice, writing away on her novels in the room we called the library at home when we were teenagers. She generally laid aside her pen — there were no computers in those days, of course — when we returned from school but we knew she had used our absence during the day to polish off a few chapters.
One of the things I well remember from those days is the care that she took in ensuring the historical accuracy of the background of her books. I am sure many of you have read novels where you are drawn out of the story by inaccuracies in historical facts, details of costume or other anachronisms. I suppose it would be impossible to claim that there are no such errors in our mother’s books; what is undoubted is that she took great care to check matters.
The result was, and is, that the books still have an appeal to a modern audience, for authenticity is appreciated by most readers, even if subconsciously. The periods in which they set vary: the earliest is The Georgian Rake, which must be around the middle of the 18th century; and some are true Regency romances. But Mum was not content with just a love story; there is always an element of mystery in her books. Indeed, this came to the fore in her later writings, which are historical detective novels.
There’s a great deal more I could say about her writings but it would be merely repeating what you can read on her website at www.alicechetwyndley.co.uk. To outward appearances, our mother was an average housewife of the time — for it was usual enough for women to remain at home in those days — but she possessed a powerful imagination that enabled her to dream up stories that appealed to many readers at the time — and still do, thanks to their recent republication.
If you have enjoyed her novels, we would be very grateful if you could leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads so that others may also be tempted to lose themselves in their pages.
Richard Ley, 2018.
MORE BOOKS BY ALICE CHETWYND LEY
THE RUTHERFORD TRILOGY
A Reputation Dies
A Fatal Assignation
THE EVERSLEY SAGA
The Clandestine Betrothal
The Toast of the Town
A Season at Brighton
OTHER NOVELS
The Jewelled Snuff Box
The Georgian Rake
The Guinea Stamp
The Master of Liversedge
Letters For A Spy
Tenant of Chesdene Manor
The Beau and the Bluestocking
A Conformable Wife
At Dark of the Moon
An Advantageous Marriage
A Regency Scandal
The Intrepid Miss Haydon
Published by Sapere Books.
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United Kingdom
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Copyright © The Estate of Alice Chetwynd Ley, 1989
The Estate of Alice Chetwynd Ley has asserted their right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales are purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-913335-76-2
Masquerade of Vengeance (The Rutherford Trilogy Book 3) Page 21