Alexander Wescott, Viscount Borin is being watched -- watched and followed. He hopes this unprecedented occurrence will win him a place in the Marquis of Hastings's cadre of secret agents in the War Office, but Hastings turns him down, claiming Alex is a wastrel with a heart for adventure but no stomach for hard work. Although disappointed -- after all, he wants to change his ways! -- Alex knows he needs a challenge. His estate is well run, his fortune secure; politics bore him; he has no interest in returning to his usual pursuits. Thus, he sets himself the task of proving Lord Hastings wrong by following the spies to their master and uncovering whatever foul scheme the culprits are plotting. If Alex unmasks the French spy rumored to be moving in the highest echelons of Society, Hastings will have to offer him a position in the Secret Service.

Katherine Collins is a managing female. An excellent, and extremely useful, trait given her family's predilection for problems and the inability, or disinclination, of the titular head of the family to deal with them. Katherine's current campaign is to find her stepsister, Constance Templeman, a husband. If the younger girl is not married by her twentieth birthday -- only six weeks from now! -- she will lose the fortune bequeathed to her by her father. Since Constance has already rejected several eligible suitors, Katherine is leaving nothing to chance. Having exhaustively researched many of the unmarried men in the ton, she and her allies, her young brother and their butler, have chosen Lord Borin as the most likely candidate to win Constance's heart. But things take an unexpected turn when the viscount shows up on their doorstep, after following her brother, who had been following him.

Grateful to the lovely young woman who answers his knock for giving him a plausible reason to call, and for inviting him to return on the morrow, Alex does not mind that she almost closes the door in his face. But despite Miss Collin's repeated and rather obvious attempts to direct his attention toward her beautiful stepsister, it is Katherine who intrigues him. Although he cannot imagine Constance, Katherine, or her uncle as a spy for the French, Alex perseveres -- and he does not mind at all that his quest throws him into Katherine's company. Will he catch the spy? Or will he find something even better?

Ladylantz from Tallahassee, FL USA