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Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. Half Title Page
  3. Books by Elizabeth Camden
  4. Title Page
  5. Dedication
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Thirty-One
  37. Thirty-Two
  38. Thirty-Three
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. Historical Note
  46. Questions for Discussion
  47. In 2021, look for Luke Delacroix’s story in
  48. About the Author
  49. Back Ads
  50. Back Cover

“Why should I?” Caroline tossed out. “I’m the one with the sapphire earrings you want so badly.”

If she gave Ida an inch, the woman would take fifty miles. Still, Caroline had a grudging respect for the first lady because she saw a side of her few people did. Ida’s health was brutalized by epileptic seizures, a crippled leg, migraine headaches, and periodic spells of melancholy that robbed her of the ability to rise from bed. Mrs. McKinley was in danger of becoming a recluse due to her infirmities and often stayed locked in her bedroom, where she obsessively knitted baby booties.

Both the president and Mrs. McKinley’s doctor recommended more interaction with the world, so Caroline had begun arranging regular tea parties with charitable groups and the wives of government officials. If loaning Ida a pair of sparkly earrings made her feel better, Caroline would happily do so.

Especially after the kindness both McKinleys had shown her. Last month Caroline’s brother had been arrested for treason in Cuba. Caroline had immediately offered her resignation, but the president refused to take it. Luke hadn’t been found guilty yet, and the military was keeping the scandal quiet until his fate could be decided.

Luke had always been a reckless daredevil who tempted fate and got into one scrape after another. But a traitor? Caroline couldn’t believe it of him. Somehow Luke had stepped into a dangerous mystery down in Cuba, and she would do her best to unravel it.

But if that failed, she needed to nurture her connections in the White House in the hope of someday winning a presidential pardon for Luke. Treason was a hanging offense, and if Luke was found guilty, her connection to the McKinleys might be her only chance to save her brother’s life.

Two

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Nathaniel Trask was a lucky man. Returning to Washington, DC, fresh off a major triumph and the assurance of a promotion, he vaulted up the steps of the Treasury Department. Exhilaration from his victory in Boston still pulsed in his veins, for he loved nothing better than solving complicated criminal schemes.

It was seven o’clock on a Thursday evening, but it went without saying that his boss would still be in his office, for Nathaniel and Wilkie were like-minded people. They shared a friendship that dated back to their Chicago days, when John Wilkie was a crusading journalist and Nathaniel a hard-boiled detective on the city’s south side. When John Wilkie became the unconventional choice to lead the US Secret Service, he brought Nathaniel along with him, and ever since they had worked side by side to restore the agency’s tattered reputation into one of faultless professionalism.