Heiress to a Duke

In 1889 eight-year-old Lady Olivia Susannah Charlton, only child of the Duke and Duchess of Charlton, is mysteriously sent to spend a few weeks of high summer with her mother's cousin on the Cornish coast. There she briefly encounters fifteen-year-old Sam Masters, who's visiting his uncle while his private-eye father undertakes a very challenging investigation in London. On her return home Olivia sees her father once more before he disappears seemingly for ever from her life. Soon after that Sam returns to London and finds his father has died in mysterious circumstances. Sixteen years later, Olivia has grown into a proud, independent and beautiful young woman despite her poor upbringing with her aging mother in a cottage a few miles from the large estate they once ruled. Sam has dedicated his working life to apprehending those who break the law and become a senior official in the Board of Customs. Olivia's seemingly conventional life as a writer of children's fiction masks a secret passion for speed and risk-taking, fed by the devil-may-care Harold Jenkins, whose family now lives in Olivia's ancestral home. With the death of the Charlton family's elderly solicitor certain long-hidden truths come to light, including the fact that the Duke of Charlton has been living for years in self-imposed exile in the South of France. In the summer of 1905 Olivia finds a way to visit France incognito in order to find her father and demand her birthright. But she must also ward off the unwelcome attentions of philandering Jack Brandon and his attempts at revenge when she rejects him. A dangerous adventure awaits as do further encounters with Sam Masters whose life is bound up with hers in more ways than they know.