Daughter of the Game

Provided, of course, that she could keep Jack's temper in check. Their employer made it clear that violence might become unavoidable. Meg was prepared for it. But dead bodies could be a damned nuisance.

Charles and Mélanie Fraser have already been through a lot together. They met during the war with Napoleon, and she accompanied him on many adventures. Now, as the toast of society, they are well known for their deep love for each other, and their political views, which do not always sit well with his fellow members of Parliament. When their six-year-old son Colin is kidnapped, their lives are irrevocably destroyed. The kidnapping has been arranged by a man they both know...Carevalo, a Spanish noble who believes that the Frasers have his family ring. This ring, a lion's head with rubies for eyes, offers the promise of power to those who wear it. During the war, Charles was sent by his government to buy it from bandits and keep it out of French hands. Unfortunately the ring is lost...neither Charles, nor Mélanie, who he encountered lost in the wilderness on his way there, have any idea where it went. Mélanie finds herself faced with the most horrible task...she knows that to get their son back, she needs to tell Charles the truth...that she was not in the wilderness by accident, that she, in fact, was a spy for the very people he was fighting against.

This realization that the woman he loved, the woman he married, used him to get secrets for her government for years is the last thing he needs in light of the kidnapping...but they stay together, anyway, determined that they will pool their resources to discover where the ring is before the deadline.

When I first started reading this book, I liked it because it seemed to be a sequel of sorts. Years ago, maybe when I was fifteen, I went through a huge Regency romance fling, and you know all romances generally end with the people getting married or confessing their love for each other, which ever comes last. Here was something different...the people are already married, their love already confessed...now we get a nifty mystery book where we see what happens after happily ever after. But after reading a couple of chapters my impression changed entirely. This is a dark book, filled with tension and intricate plotting, both on the part of the author and her characters. Everything is tightly woven, and for every clue we get that leads us to the ring, we often get a shock as something else is discovered, some new realization or betrayal revealed. What makes this book so readable is that we truly like Charles and Mélanie...they both really love each other, but know that things are changed. Charles is totally ticked at his wife, even though he still treats her with respect, even compassion, but feels that he no longer knows her. Mélanie accepts his anger as her due, and is devastated because she knows she can't expect him to keep her as his wife now that he knows many of the shocking and often sorrowful secrets of her past. Because we can sympathize with both sides, it makes the twists and turns even more surprising, and the story even harder to put down as we truly hope that somehow these problems can be resolved and this couple be allowed to go on with their lives.

Grant makes the full gamut of our emotions her playground, moving us, horrifying us, angering us, and uplifting us. Spiced with lines from Shakespeare, woven through with incredible details of the time and strong action, you won't be satisfied until you've turned the last page.

And, if you're like me, until you've walked over to the shelf and at least started her next book, Beneath a Silent Moon.