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Table of Contents
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About The Rosewater Debutante
Praise for the Adelaide Becket series
Title Page
The Story So Far…
The Rosewater Debutante
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About the Author
Other books by Tracy Cooper-Posey
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About The Rosewater Debutante
Adele learns just how ruthless German agents can be.
In Edwardian England, Lady Adelaide Azalea Margaret de Morville, Mrs. Hugh Becket, continues her work for William Melville, spymaster, even though it has left her with no time to live the life she would prefer, which includes spending at least a little time with Daniel Bannister.
When she refuses to travel to Germany to watch over King Edward while he visits the German Emperor to discuss disarmament of their increasingly more competitive navies, Melville gives Adele an alternative, superficial task of watching over a young, sweet debutante, Lady Winnifred.
Adele perseveres with the useless, quite horrid task of trailing an innocent girl through the Season. It puts her in the path of German agents, who demonstrate just how dark and dangerous her new work really is…
This novelette is the second in the Adelaide Becket Edwardian espionage series.
1: The Requisite Courage
2: The Rosewater Debutante
…and more to come.
A historical suspense espionage novelette.
Praise for the Adelaide Becket series
Tracy takes you again back in time to an era you could only imagine about but brings it in vivid color through her story
A delightful game of cat and mouse
I thoroughly enjoyed this magnificent first in series book!!
The writing style is easy to read and the plot COMPLETELY unpredictable!!
It was a marvelous escape from reality
Breathtaking start to a fantastic new series by Tracy Cooper-Posey.
Succinct and yet rich in the details that create historical immersion and scenes I found easy to imagine being a part.
I loooove good quality writing and I love a new series like a junkie. Just give it a try, you won't be disappointed!
The Story So Far…
If you have not yet read the first story, The Requisite Courage, this summary will reveal spoilers!
Lady Adelaide Azalea Margaret de Morville, Mrs. Hugh Becket, lived in the Cape Colony with her commoner husband for eight years and during that time learned to speak fluent German. Adele was widowed in a tragic accident and returned to London in early 1906.
William Melville, a former Scotland Yard senior official and now a shadowy figure in the British government, approaches Adele and requests she help him uncover a German conspiracy to assassinate King Edward during a weekend houseparty at Balmoral. He provides her with a handgun which is too big and heavy for her, although she does know how to shoot.
Adele agrees to help with reluctance, for she does not feel she has the requisite skills or courage for such work. Former friends among the peerage refuse to speak to her, confirming how useless she is.
She also meets Daniel Hargrave Bannister II, Baron Leighton, at Balmoral, and their pithy exchanges remind her of why she refused his advances when she was a debutante.
One old friend, Boyd Waterman, helps Adele speak to everyone, including King Edward, who flirts outrageously with her.
Boyd has an agenda—to win her gratitude so he can seduce her later that night. Instead of cooperating, Adele punches Boyd in the nose and breaks it. When she returns to the kitchen to ice her knuckles, she find Daniel brooding there. The two of them agree their weekend has been a disaster.
Daniel helps Adele uncover the German agents and neutralize the plot against the King. Melville asks Daniel to help him with his work in the future. Daniel asks Adele if he can see her again, and this time, Adele says yes.
Now read on…
The Rosewater Debutante
John Brown Shipyards, Glasgow, 7th June, 1906.
ADELE WAS QUITE FAR AWAY from the front of the crowd of well-dressed people pressing up against the railing. All she could see of the RMS Lusitania between the roof of the observation deck and the heads of the people in front of her was a great black wall of iron and rivets which did not seem to be moving.
Yet everyone cheered madly, clapped and made little hopping motions, as if they really would jump about and squeal if they were not the cream of British society.
Champagne had been smashed against the bow by Mary, the widow of Lord Inverclyde. Inverclyde had hammered home the first rivet on the Lusitania nearly two years ago. Cameras popped, foul-smelling smoke rising from the bright lights held in the hands of the camera operators, only to be whisked away by the fresh breeze.
Adele had not attended a ship launch before, but she suspected that what was meant to happen now was that the ship would slide backward down the slipway into the River Clyde, which twinkled in the bright afternoon sun.
“It’s not moving,” Adele muttered to herself. Her invitation to the launch of the newest of the Cunard transatlantic ships had not extended itself to include a companion, so she stood alone at the back of a group of six hundred guests who had travelled to Scotland to attend the launch, leaving