Berkley Prime Crime
Featuring: Lady Georgiana Charlotte Euenie
320 pages ISBN: 0425234460 EAN: 9780425234464 Kindle: B00400NHOW Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Lady Georgiana is about to set out on a new adventure.
First, she receives an invitation from the Queen, then she
receives a message from her sister-in-law, Fig. Fig and
Binky are about to descend on their home in London. Since
Georgie politely loathes Fig, she is seeking some way to
leave town. Not only does Fig treat her like a servant, she
can't understand why Georgie won't get married and save them
all from the misfortunes that plague them.
Georgie is asked to be a bridesmaid at the wedding of
Princess Maria Theresa, someone she once knew in school.
She is also asked to be the Royal family's representative at
the wedding. The Queen will provide a chaperon but Georgie
must provide the maid. To top things off, Darcy O'Mara is
going to be attending the wedding as well. Maybe, the two
of them can at last get some private time.
Georgie seeks out her granddad's help in finding a maid.
His next door neighbor has a granddaughter who may be
willing to help. Georgie meets her chaperone, Lady
Middlesex at the station with her maid, Queenie. Queenie is
hopeless-- incompetent, fearful of the travel and their new
surroundings, and she can't remember the proper forms of
address. Lady Middlesex and her companion, Miss Deer-Harte
travel to the castle with Georgie, only to be stranded by a
freak snowstorm.
When a mysterious death occurs, Georgie and Darcy find
themselves trying to determine the identity of a killer.
The Romanian secret police are there impeding the
investigation convinced that Darcy and Georgie are part of
the conspiracy.
With the fourth entry in the Royal Spyness series, Ms. Bowen
has written an engaging story that will keep the reader
guessing until the end.
The Royal Spyness series continues with an all-new mystery
of "the British monarchy...a wedding in Transylvania...
[and] wonderful characters." (#1 "New York Times"
bestselling author Charlaine Harris). Penniless and thirty-
fourth in line to the throne, Lady Georgiana Rannoch finds
herself in a truly draining state of affairs. To escape
her hateful brother, Georgie accepts an invitation from
the Queen to represent the royals at a wedding in
Transylvania. But at the macabre- looking castle, Georgie
finds the bride with blood running down her chin, and a
wedding guest is poisoned. Now it's up to Georgie to save
the nuptial festivities before the couple's vows become:
to love and to cherish, till "undeath" do them part...
Excerpt
I climbed into bed and lingered for a while before I
dared to turn off the bedside lamp. I had always thought of
myself as the daring one in the family. I had allowed my
brother and his school friends to lower me into the castle
well at home. I had sat up all night on the battlements
once to see if my grandfather’s ghost really did play the
bagpipes. But this was different. I felt a profound sense
of unease. I wished I still had a nanny in the next room.
Finally I curled up into a little ball and tried to go to
sleep.
I was drifting off when I thought I heard the smallest
of noises—a light click. My eyes shot open, instantly
awake. Although the outer regions of my room were pitch
black I was somehow sure that someone was in the room with
me. The curtains around the bed obscured my view. I leaned
out a little, then drew my head back quickly. The fire had
died down but from the glow I could make out a dark figure,
moving closer and closer. At last he stood over the bed. I
opened my mouth but I was too frightened to move or to
scream. The glow from the fire illuminated his face. It
looked just like the young man from the portrait on the
wall.
He leaned closer and closer to me and he murmured
something in a language I didn’t understand. He was
smiling, his teeth reflected in firelight. Everything
Belinda had told me about vampires biting necks and the
ecstasy of being bitten rushed back to me. In the safety of
London and daylight I had laughed at her. But the face
above me was all too real and it seemed as if those teeth
were heading straight for my neck. However terrified I was,
one thing was certain. I was definitely not about to be
turned into an undead.
I sat up abruptly, making him leap backward.
"What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded in a way
that my great grandmother, Queen Victoria would have been
proud of.
The young man gave an unearthly moan of horror. Then he
turned and melted back into the shadows.
For a while I couldn’t move. I sat up, my heart beating
so rapidly that I could hardly breathe. Was the creature
still in the room with me? How did one ward off vampires
anyway? I tried to remember from reading Dracula. Some
sort of herb or plant? Parsley? No, that wasn’t it. I
thought it might be garlic. Had I eaten enough of that in
the venison to breathe on him? I wasn’t about to try and
find my way down to the kitchen to locate some. I also
thought I remembered that crosses might work, but I didn’t
have one of those either. Stakes through the heart? I
didn’t think I could pull that one off even if I had a
stake at my disposal.
Then I thought of something more solid, like maybe one
of the large candlesticks on the mantelpiece. Surely even a
vampire could be kept at bay with a whomp over the head
with that. I slipped out of bed, made my way across the
room and picked up the candlestick. Then I crossed the room
cautiously until I reached the light switch. I turned it on
and found nobody there. Of course then I had to lift the
various curtains, one by one, experiencing at least one
heart-stopping moment when a blast of cold air hit me in
the face and I realized that one of the windows was open.
I tried to close it but it didn’t latch properly. I told
myself that Siegfried’s room was next door, but I pictured
myself standing at his door in a nightdress again, trying
to explain at that a vampire had just been trying to bite
my neck. Somehow I didn’t think he’d believe me. Then I
noticed a large tapestry bell pull beside the bed and was
half tempted to yank on it and see who it brought. But
since they probably spoke no English and I would have felt
equally foolish explaining a vampire attack to them, I
left it and got into bed, still clutching the candlestick.
At least I was relieved knowing that the bell pull was
there and if he came back I could summon help before he
could get his teeth into me.
The moment I was in bed I remembered the chest that I
hadn’t managed to open before. I could never sleep not
knowing what was in there. I got up and crossed the room
slowly while the portrait of the young man looked down with
a mocking smile. I jumped again as I caught site of my
reflection in that wardrobe mirror and it did occur to me
that I had never seen the young man’s reflection as he came
toward the bed. Wasn’t that another thing about vampires—
that one couldn’t see their shadow or their reflection? I
shuddered. The lid was too heavy to lift. I struggled and
struggled until at last I had it open. To my intense relief
it only contained clothing, including a black cape. The
interesting thing was that there were some half melted
snowflakes on it, which made me suspect that my vampire
visitor had climbed the wall into my room.
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