A Most Intriguing Lady


 
 
 
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Contents
 Author’s Note
 Part 1: Drumlanrig Castle, Scottish Borders
 Chapter One: An Intriguing Encounter
 Chapter Two: Reeling at the Ceilidh
 Chapter Three: The Dormouse
 Chapter Four: The Shooting Party
 Chapter Five: Mayhem on the Moors
 Chapter Six: Repercussions
 Chapter Seven: Machinations
 Chapter Eight: Lady Mary Investigates
 Chapter Nine: Accusations
 Chapter Ten: A Heart to Heart
 Chapter Eleven: The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune
 Chapter Twelve: Alone Again, Naturally
 
 
 Part 2: Newburgh Priory, Yorkshire
 Chapter Thirteen: We’ll Meet Again
 Chapter Fourteen: The Dog Kennel Garden
 Chapter Fifteen: Relics
 Chapter Sixteen: Lady Mary, Quite Contrary
 Chapter Seventeen: I Get a Kick Out of You
 Chapter Eighteen: The Water Garden
 Chapter Nineteen: Maybe This Time
 Chapter Twenty: A Maid All Forlorn
 Chapter Twenty-One: The Shootist
 Chapter Twenty-Two: A Little Digging
 Chapter Twenty-Three: To Catch a Thief
 Chapter Twenty-Four: Ready to Run!
 
 
 Part 3: Carlsbad and London
 Chapter Twenty-Five: Taking the Cure
 Chapter Twenty-Six: Home Truths
 Chapter Twenty-Seven: London Calling
 Chapter Twenty-Eight: Take a Chance on Me
 Chapter Twenty-Nine: Cliveden
 Chapter Thirty: Two Are Better Than One
 Chapter Thirty-One: Acting Up
 Chapter Thirty-Two: Slumdog Mary
 Chapter Thirty-Three: When Mary Met Queenie
 Chapter Thirty-Four: The Spy Who Loves Me
 Chapter Thirty-Five: A Fair Exchange Is No Robbery
 Chapter Thirty-Six: Nothing Compares to You
 
 
 Part 4: Drumlanrig Castle, Scottish Borders
 Chapter Thirty-Seven: Equal but Different
 
 
 Historical Note
 About the Authors
 Also by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
 Copyright
 About the Publisher
 
 
 
 
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 Dedication
 
 
 Because no-one knows you like a sister, or misunderstands you like a sister, and yet loves you like a sister, this book is
 dedicated to my own dear sister, Jane.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Author’s Note
 
 Dear Reader,
 A Most Intriguing Lady is my second collaboration with Marguerite Kaye, and my second novel set in the Victorian period. Lady Mary, my heroine, may
 be familiar to readers of Her Heart for a Compass as the youngest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch, but the journey she undertakes is very different from the one
 her elder sister travels in the previous book. Lady Mary is not a heroine who relishes the limelight—quite the opposite. She’s
 a quiet observer, the kind of person who picks up on every tiny personal detail and foible and who has a real talent for piecing
 them together to form an accurate picture of the person concerned. Lady Mary is a wallflower, easy to ignore, and very easy
 to under-estimate. In fact, though she doesn’t know it at the beginning of this book, she has all the qualities that would
 make her an excellent sleuth.
 
 This isn’t a detective story, however. It is, like Her Heart for a Compass, a story about a woman trying to find her niche in the world, and refusing to fit the mould her lineage demands. Lady Mary
 has to battle duty and heritage, convention and custom, to live her life in her own manner. Based very loosely on the real
 life Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott, A Most Intriguing Lady mingles historical fact and real characters with fiction. From Drumlanrig Castle in the Scottish Borders, to Yorkshire, the
 spa town of Carlsbad in Bohemia, and on to London, Lady Mary’s journey is one of self-discovery and—eventually—finding love.
 
 This is a work of fiction, but in writing it I have drawn some deliberate parallels with my own life and used some of my own
 experiences to give authenticity to Lady Mary’s character. My parents’ separation when I was fifteen left me motherless and
 lonely. Discovering, as an adult, that my parents had lost a