Forbidden Pleasures by Bertrice Small

probably would have gambled them away, leaving her impoverished. Caroline knows nothing of her father’s plans, but as an obedient daughter, and still in shock over what has happened in France, she accepts his decision to marry her off to the duke. The day after the wedding the earl puts a pistol to his head.
    “Grief-stricken, Caroline is horrified to learn the truth from her kindly old husband as to how her father has protected her before taking his own life. She vows then and there to get back at the revolutionaries in France for destroying her family. She seeks out others among her class who are like-minded, and begins her operations. She is known to her enemies as Lavender, for she always leaves a sprig of the flower behind when she has snatched someone from the clutches of Madame la Guillotine.”
    “Very nice,” he said, “but where are we going to fit the sex in, m’dear?”
    “The old duke dies when Caroline is twenty,” Emily continued. “His heir is his nephew, and the nephew wants to make Caro his wife, a fact known to the old duke, who fully approved. He even suggested to Caroline that after a proper period of mourning she marry his heir. But of course, Caro fears a young and alert husband will discover what she has been doing, so she resists. But the new duke, Justin Trahern, seduces her. She tells him she will be his wife, but she will be answerable to no one but herself. He agrees because he is deeply in love with her.
    “By accident—and don’t ask me how because I haven’t decided yet—he learns what she is doing. At first he is outraged that a woman would behave so. Then he becomes frightened for her. He tells her he knows, and in an effort to make him understand why she does what she does, Caro tells him the truth of what happened to her mother. Trahern realizes the only chance he has of stopping the woman he loves from putting herself in constant danger is to find the jailer and the men who raped her mother, and see them dead.”
    “I like it,” Michael Devlin told her. “I like it very much. It’s clever, and we should be able to make the love affair between Caro and Trahern sizzle. Women who have had tough times will identify nicely with the heroine. She’s suffering survivor’s guilt, of course, and that does make you do things you might not otherwise do.”
    The timer on the counter pinged, and Emily got up to check her cakes. They were perfect. Turning off the oven, she drew each pan from inside, carefully setting them on her counter to cool before turning them out onto her cake racks.
    “Smells good. What kind of cake is it going to be?” he asked her.
    “Just an old-fashioned kind my grans taught me. Raspberry jam between the layers, and powdered sugar on top,” Emily explained.
    “My gran in Ireland used to make that,” he said. “It was always my favorite.”
    “I think everything is your favorite.” She laughed. “There isn’t anything I’ve cooked so far that you haven’t scarfed up like a starving man, Devlin. I think you have a tapeworm,” Emily teased him.
    “Roast beef, chocolate trifle, cake with jam,” he replied. “What isn’t to like?”
    She laughed again. “I like you, Devlin,” she told him. “I was really upset when I learned Rachel had gone, but I’m not as upset now.”
    “I haven’t edited your manuscript yet,” he said with a small grin. Then he said, “I think turnabout is fair play, Emily Shanski. I’m going to make you lunch. I’ll need bread, rat cheese, honey mustard, and olive oil or butter. And a cast-iron frying pan.”
    “Grilled cheese sandwiches!” she said. “Now, those are my favorites.”
    “Get going, woman, and fetch me my supplies.” He chuckled, giving her bottom a small smack.
    “Yes, sir!” Emily replied, and she bustled off to find what he needed. “And I want you to know I’m a connoisseur of grilled cheese. These had better be good.”
    “I’m good at everything I do, Emily, as you are about to