SummaryOn the mean streets of Regency London, a truly different
adventure-with an unforgettable heroine In a Regency London that isn't quite the one we know, young
women of family whose reputations have been ruined are
known as the Fallen. Young Sarah Tolerance is one such: a
daughter of the nobility who ran away with her brother's
fencing-master. Now that the fencing-master has died,
everyone expects her to earn her living as a whore. But Sarah is unwilling. Instead, she invents a new role for
herself, and a new vocation: "investigative agent." For
Sarah, with her equivocal position in society, is able to
float between social layers, unearth secrets, find things
that were lost, and lose things too dangerous to be kept.
Her stock in trade is her wits, her discretion, and her
expertise with the smallsword -- for her fencing-master
taught her that as well. She will need all her skills soon, when she is approached
by an agent of the Count Verseillon, for a task that seems
routine: reclaim an antique fan he once gave to "a lady
with brown eyes." The fan, he tells her, is an heirloom;
the lady, his first love. But as Sarah Tolerance unravels
the mystery that surrounds the fan, she discovers that she--
and the Count--are not the only ones seeking it, and that
nothing about this task is what it seems.
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