Sir James Redstone has recently returned from abroad.
He is handsome, well-educated, heir to the Redstone title and family fortune, and a fellow traveler of Mikaela Forsythe.
He is also a member of the royal inner circle, close friend of the Prince of Wales, and well known to Mikaela’s aunt, Lady Antonia Montgomery.
In the past he and Mikaela traveled in the same group to Egypt and the Far East. They share the experience of that adventure that she has written about in her first novel.
Now, Redstone has returned with tales of other travels that Mikaela might have made if not for the recent change in her relationship with Brodie.
Redstone is everything Brodie is not as far as society is concerned, and it drives a wedge between the two when he becomes suspicious of the man’s activities—a series of telegrams covertly sent and received, meetings in the middle of the night in places that are dangerous and frequented only by foreigners.
Is it jealousy and envy? Or are Brodie’s suspicions valid?
At the same time, Mikaela has noticed undeniable changes in Sir James—a forgotten experience aboard a ship they were on, an encounter with Bedoins in the desert, and the death of a fellow traveler. Small things to other people, but it raises her own suspicions of the man who has the appearance and manners of Redstone, and yet…
Is it simply the intervening years and other travels that have dimmed the memories, or is it something more?
Lily, now Mikaela’s ward, who is young and far more worldly than she should be, makes a startling claim about Redstone, well-learned from her previous experiences at that brothel in Edinburgh.
Then a member of the royal inner circle is found dead, last seen in the company of Redstone, and both Brodie and Mikaela are forced to look at their own suspicions of the man.
Is he who he claims to be? Or is he an impostor? If so, how and what does that death mean? Who will be next?
It’s a race against time for Mikaela and Brodie to set aside their suspicions of one another, follow the clues no matter where it takes them, and discover a horrifying deception that reaches beyond London and could change the course of everyone’s lives.
