Book description
Duelling, derring-do, and dastardly deeds are all in a day's work for
Liberty Lane: a new heroine for fans of Matthew Hawkwood and Sarah
Waters's Victorian novels.
June 1837. She should have remained in the care of her sour aunt in
Chalke Bissett, but Liberty Lane was never one to obey instructions.
Eager to be reunited with her beloved father, she heads for Dover. But
her hopes of surprising him as he steps off the boat are dashed by an
anonymous note informing her that he has been killed in a duel at
Calais, and commanding her to remain where she is and speak to no one.
Thomas Jacques Lane - radical, romantic, scholar, republican, gambler
and devoted father -had led an unconventional life. His movements in the
days leading up to his death are a mystery, but of one thing Liberty is
certain: he would never have taken part in a duel, for it went against
everything he believed in. And if the author of the anonymous note
expected her to swallow this lie and meekly obey his command to stay
put, he had severely underestimated Liberty Lane.
With no resources bar her own wits, she immediately sets sail for
Calais in pursuit of the truth - and her father's killer. There she
encounters a mysterious stranger who promises information in return for
her services as a spy, planted in the Windsor estate of the powerful and
ambitious Lord Mandeville. And as the nation prepares to celebrate the
coronation of young Queen Victoria, Liberty uncovers a treasonable plot
which could lead to another vicious civil war… Caro Peacock grew up in
a farmhouse that, for most of her childhood, contained half a dozen
brothers, sisters and cousins, twice as many cats and dogs, no central
heating and one bathroom that stopped working every time the spring that
supplied it silted up. This possibly bred the habit of curling up in a
quiet place with a book and, later, a passion for travel that led to a
rather disrupted education. Somewhere along the line, she acquired a
great interest in Victorian history - which she considers a much
misunderstood period - and particularly the part played in it by
independently-minded women. Caro rides horses, climbs, trampolines and
spends some time every year studying wild flowers in the Alps.
