Miss Sedgewick and the Spy

Book excerpt: With Napoleon Bonaparte in exile, Europe is once again open to travelers. In a remote area of the French countryside, the sensible Miss Drusilla Sedgewick encounters the legendary Col. MacRory Holt, Wellington's top military intelligence officer. Holt, impressed by Drusilla's cool nerve, quick wits, and idiomatic French, wishes to recruit her into the Great Game of spying. Dru agrees and soon finds herself immersed in intrigue. Despite Holt's disconcerting habit of materializing in her bedroom at odd hours in various disguises, Dru finds herself experiencing a most unladylike excitement at being in Holt's company.