AustLit

'Stella Myles is suddenly impoverished through a family crisis and becomes forced to make ends meet by selling herself as a dance partner in a Piccadilly ballroom. Here she meets the enigmatic Montgomery, who orchestrates a job for her as governess for the wealthy Ainsworth family in Sussex. But nothing is as straightforward as it first seems.

'In entering the mansion of Harp's End, Stella encounters a family with more secrets than most. She struggles to fit in above or below stairs – although nothing proves so challenging as restraining the illicit love that ignites between herself and the mysterious Douglas Ainsworth.

'When Douglas announces that they are all to voyage aboard a cruise ship bound for Morocco, tensions reach new heights and finally bubble over. Stella finds herself caught up in a family at war and in a world on the edge of another. She is now the keeper of an incendiary document smuggled out of Berlin, one which must reach London at all costs.

'From the rolling green hills of the Kentish Weald to the colourful alleys and bazaars of Morocco, this is a thrilling story of intrigue and danger – and a passion to risk dying for.' (Publication summary)