Augustus Whittlesby has been an agent in France for years.
He is aware of the Pink Carnation's organization and
sometimes works with them, when needed. He is also in love
with the Pink Carnation.
Augustus has posed as a poet with Jane as his inspiration
for all of his poetry. He has always known Emma Morris
Delagardie as a part of French Society. What he doesn't know
is that there is much more to Emma than anyone would think.
Emma ran away with her husband at a young age to escape her
family and because she fancied herself in love. Both of them
were disappointed in the marriage. Paul, because he wanted
Emma's dower to finance his plans for draining the lands of
his estate so he could make it profitable. She, because Paul
seemed more interested in his schemes than in her. Emma
spends most of the year in Paris with the Bonapartes while
Paul stays at his beloved estates.
One of her cousins is the ambassador from the United States
to France. Another has come to explore business
opportunities and to return Emma to her family. Emma has no
desire to return to her family but she is torn as to what
she will do once her plans are finished. When Paul died
unexpectedly, Emma worked tirelessly to facilitate his plans
for the estate and almost everything is done.
When she is asked to plan a masque as a farewell for her
cousin Robert's return to the Americas, she is reluctant.
Only when she is asked by Jane to work with Augustus, does
she give in.
Emma and Augustus have never gotten along. He thinks her a
frivolous woman. She can see his feeling for Jane are not
reciprocated and thinks him a fool for the drivel he writes.
As they work together to plan the masque, they will also
have to thwart plans for an invasion of England by the
French.
When they are betrayed by of the men who works under
Agustus, Emma will help him escape and make a decision about
what to do with her own life.
This series just gets better and better. The blending of the
past and the present never fails to keep me entertained. Ms.
Willig has written some memorable characters in this
installment of the series. Colin and Eloise hit a crucial
point in their relationship and they must also make some
decisions about where they are heading. A very satisfactory
read!
In the ninth installment of Lauren Willig's bestselling Pink
Carnation series, an atrocious poet teams up with an
American widow to prevent Napoleon's invasion of England.
Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade
undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet.
The French surveillance officers can't bear to read his work
closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea
of verbiage. New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn
in Augustus's side. An old school friend of Napoleon's
stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, the
American envoy; eloped with a Frenchman; and has been
rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Widowed for
four years, she entertains herself by drinking too much
champagne, holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing
Augustus's poetry.
As Napoleon pursues his plans for the
invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device
to be demonstrated at a house party at Malmaison. The catch?
The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a
masque for the weekend's entertainment. Emma is at a
crossroads: Should she return to the States or remain in
France? She'll do anything to postpone the decision-even if
it means teaming up with that silly poet Whittlesby to write
a masque for Bonaparte's house party. But each soon learns
that surface appearances are misleading. In this complicated
masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted-
especially Augustus's feelings for Emma.
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