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Book Details
An Heir is Misplaced
A missing heir. An out of sorts duchess. A Season in High Society that just became far more interesting…
London, 1891. With the gossip broadsheet The Society Page speculating that her husband is getting far too cosy with their female neighbour back at his country estate, Alice, Duchess of Stortford, is fed-up. And it’s raining! But when a flustered nobleman appears at her door, knowing of her reputation for managing discreet enquires, he begs her for help. His nephew, who is about to inherit an Earldom, has gone missing.
But the deeper Alice digs, the murkier things become. Why are the late Earl’s wife and his stepson so evasive? What really happened at The Carlton Hotel the night the heir was last seen? And who’s set to gain the Earldom if the heir ends up dead?
Aided by her loyal maid Maud, her quick-thinking footman George, and the ever-resourceful private investigator Ben Beaumont—not to mention a certain well-known detective with a pipe—Alice must untangle a web of secrets to find the missing heir before it’s too late.
The clock is ticking, the gossip is swirling—and only Alice can set things right.
Purchase Links
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heir-Misplaced-Duchess-Stortford-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FB93JSMS
Intro
It’s Spring in London, 1891. With the gossip broadsheet The Society Page speculating that her husband is getting far too cosy with their female neighbour back at his country estate, Alice, Duchess of Stortford, is fed-up. And it’s raining!
Alice and her Aunt Cora are having tea in the morning room at Darby House…
Extract
“Now what you need is a diversion, Alice. An interest, something like—”
Alice held her hand up and cut her aunt off. “Embroidery or painting will not suffice enough to give me a purpose, Aunt Cora,” she replied firmly. “I need to do something that will make me feel useful.”
She sighed again, earning a look from her aunt as she plucked up The Society Page off the table and turned it over, hoping for something juicy to occupy her mind.
Oh, this looks promising, she thought as she read the headline: An Heir Apparent—or Not at All? She read on…
The recent passing of the late Earl of Rivershore has left his household in a most delicate state of uncertainty as whispers circulate regarding the potential appearance of a hitherto absent heir.
The Dowager Countess of Rivershore, presently in residence at Rivershore Hall, is said to be conducting herself with composure, though it is widely supposed that she is not without private anxieties. Should a legitimate heir lay claim to the title and entailed estate before the prescribed legal deadline, the Countess may find herself obliged to withdraw from the home she has long presided over.
Meanwhile, her son by a former marriage, Mr Henry Somerset, has been overheard at White’s Club voicing no small degree of frustration. Having managed the Rivershore estate these past three years on behalf of his late stepfather, Mr Somerset is reportedly unwilling to relinquish such responsibility without contest. Indeed, those privy to the conversation suggest he has not ruled out a legal challenge to the entail should an heir make himself known.
The matter must be resolved post-haste as the statutory deadline is understood to expire by week’s end. Until then, Society watches and speculates—as is it’s wont.
Henry Somerset? Hadn’t she met him before? If she remembered correctly, her younger brother, James, had introduced the dashing gentleman to her. Oh, yes, I remember him now… Altogether he’s too handsome for his own good…
Her thoughts were interrupted by the scrape of the front door being opened. There was a muffled conversation, then footsteps coming her way heralded the arrival of a letter, borne by the steady hands of Pratt, her butler. Alice immediately recognised her sister-in-law’s elegant script, igniting a spark of curiosity in her otherwise dull afternoon. “It’s from Fee,” she told Aunt Cora.
The seal popped as she broke it. The words danced before her, filled with the vigour only Fiona, the Countess of Tilling, could inspire through mere ink and paper. She cleared her throat and read it out loud.
“My dearest Alice,
This tiresome weather must surely be dragging you down into a state of ennui. But take heart! I’m sending you a distraction—one I trust you shall not find entirely dull.
He comes in the form of The Right Honourable Lester Fairfax, brother-in-law to the late Earl of Rivershore’s younger brother (though I confess I can never quite keep the Rivershore lineage straight). He finds himself in need of a certain kind of assistance, and naturally, you sprang to mind.
After the deft way in which you managed Cousin Lucy’s delicate situation—”
Aunt Cora cleared her throat. Lucy’s ‘delicate situation’ and Alice’s part in covering it up was a subject her aunt treated with the same horror she reserved for bad sherry or bare ankles.
Alice carried on.
“and with so little fuss!—I assured him you would be the very person to consult. Love to Aunt Cora. Fee.”
“So Lester Fairfax is back, is he?” Cora asked, leaning forward, her interest clearly piqued. “I remember him from my first season. It was before his sister had married the Earl of Rivershore’s younger brother.” Aunt Cora then shook her head. “Later, I remember someone telling me he’d left London with his sister and her husband. They ventured to India for tea trading, I believe,” Cora mused, clearly rifling through her mental index cards of society connections.
Well, this could prove interesting. Does his problem concern the earl’s heir I have just been reading about in The Society Page? I hope so! Aunt Cora was right. A diversion—and perhaps a challenge—was precisely what she needed right now.
About Helen Golden
Helen Golden spins mysteries that are charmingly British, delightfully deadly, and served with a twist of humour.
With quirky characters, clever red herrings, and plots that keep the pages turning, she’s the author of the much-loved A Right Royal Cozy Investigation series, following Lady Beatrice and her friends—including one clever little dog—as they uncover secrets hidden in country houses and royal palaces. Her new historical mystery series, The Duchess of Stortford Mysteries, is set in Victorian England and introduces an equally curious sleuth from Lady Beatrice’s own family tree—where murders are solved over cups of tea, whispered gossip, and overheard conversations in drawing rooms and grand estates.
Helen lives in a quintessential English village in Lincolnshire with her husband, stepdaughter, and a menagerie of pets—including a dog, several cats, a tortoise, and far too many fish.
If you love clever puzzles, charming settings, and sleuths with spark, her books are waiting for you.
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