A NOBLE SCHEME is the second book in a series of three about a group called a’The Imposters.”
Set in the early twentieth century, before the First World War, this series draws the reader in by having a young earl and his sister be poverty-stricken after the death of a financially irresponsible father. So how are these aristocrats to keep up appearances (including an estate in the country and a town house in London?)
But the Fairfax’s are very eccentric. Brother Yeats and sister Marigold have trained as trapeze artists in the circus. Their dearest friends are Graeme (a teacher’s son given an opportunity) and Gemma (a steward’s daughter.) And they have warm relationships with a family of Roma who camp on their property.
These unlikely characters put their heads together and come up with The Imposters, which involves Marigold & Yeats using their trapeze-artist skills to eavesdrop on the aristocracy, (most of their clients come from dueling families), and Gemma and Marigold using their Romany friends to provide them with convincing disguises.
Now Marigold is married to ex-Coldstream guard Merritt, who brings valuable talents to the table. And this time, the stakes are much higher than in the first novel, for two pre-teen boys have been kidnapped by a nobleman who is unpredictable at best and downright mad at least. Lord Astley lost a beloved daughter in a tragic accident that he blames on aristocrat-turned-business man Sir Wilfred. To pay him back in kind he kidnaps Sir Wilfred’s son and heir Horace. The question becomes will he treat the boy well, or does he intend to murder him?
So much grief is packed into this novel. We learn about Gemma and Graeme’s devastation at losing their 9-month-old son in a car-crash, Hannah’s never-ending grief at losing her daughter when she was too ill to work, as well as Lord Astley’s devastation.
Child death was not uncommon in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and some have argued that parents became inured to such losses. But this novel tells a very different and convincing story of the kind of heartache that never goes away. Five Stars.
