In England of 1811 Queen Charlotte may be Regent, but the fate of women—particularly Fallen women—can be particularly harsh. To avoid the fate of others of her kind, Sarah Tolerance works as an Agent of Inquiry, using her wits and her skill with a short sword to find lost trinkets and wastrel husbands. But sometimes her cases are not so simple.When a fallen woman's life savings is stolen, Miss Tolerance is asked to find the culprit. But what begins as a simple case of swindled fund...

At sixteen, Sarah Tolerance scandalized Society when she ran away with her brother's fencing master. After his death, Society expected her to follow the route of all Fallen Women, and become a courtesan.But Sarah Tolerance has never done what was expected of her. Instead, she reinvents herself as an Agent of Inquiry - a private investigator for the Quality. Able to slide between social layers, Miss Tolerance unearths secrets, finds things that were lost, and loses things too danger...

Miss Sarah Tolerance may be a Fallen Woman, but she refuses to take the path decreed for her by English Society in the year 1810. Instead, she becomes an Agent of Inquiry, hired by those of means in the court of Queen Regent Charlotte.Expecting to specialize in finding lost trinkets and wastrel husbands, her skills with pistol and sword — and her sharp wit — lead her to more complicated cases.Her newest case is one such puzzle: who killed the Chevalier d'Aubigny? The French...

For a Fallen Woman and Agent of Inquiry, a young matron of quality is not the usual client. But when such a woman asks Miss Sarah Tolerance to find her sister, Miss Tolerance can't bring herself to say no. The girl has vanished from under her family's roof, apparently bent on elopement with a mysterious stranger.Like, and unlike, Miss Tolerance's own scandalous elopement years ago.Haunted by the similarities between this girl's story and her own, Miss Tolerance is determine...

Vonda N. McIntyre preferred to keep her author's biography short and sweet: "Vonda N. McIntyre writes science fiction." While true, this modest claim conceals accomplishments that earned her multiple accolades and an enduring place among the most influential fantasy and science fiction writers of the 20th and 21st centuries.Even more important to the authors of this tribute anthology, McIntyre was a kind and generous supporter of other writers. In Bright Morning, eleven career writ...

The last time Olivia Martingale saw Menwin it was in Brussels on the eve of Waterloo. She had loved him then, but her love was not returned. Instead she yielded to the insistent Lord John Temperer, married him, and was left a widow.With the war at last over, visiting John’s family seemed like a good idea. But John’s brother the Duke disliked her; John’s mother wanted to match-make for her… and into the middle of all this walked Menwin, filling the room with his presence. Olivia fel...

Rowena Cherwood did not go around boasting of it, but she had a tidy legacy from her parents. Free to choose the life she wanted, and unwilling to live with her overbearing aunt, she accepted a position as Lady Bradwell’s companion. A spinster of twenty-seven, Rowena gave little thought to marriage — until Lyn Bradwell, Lady Bradwell’s long absent son, returned to England. Love was the last thing on Rowena’s mind — or Lyn’s. But Lady Bradwell, impatient for her companion’s ...

Hidden in a convent in Bonapartist Spain, Dorothea Cannowen seizes her only chance to return to England. When she discovers a stranger, wounded and delirious in the convent garden, she nurses him to health —— then begs him to take her back to England with him. But to do so — to preserve Dorothea’s reputation — Douglas Matlin counters with a proposal: marry him now, and have the marriage annulled when they reach London.Neither of them can know that the dangers of a journey t...

Stranded with an inn-full of travelers, Jenny Prydd finds herself embroiled in Emily Pellering’s reluctant elopement. When she realizes that Emily’s having second thoughts Jenny finds it impossible not to interfere. With the help of her fellow travelers — enigmatic Peter Teverley and his nephew Dominic — Jenny foils a fortune-hunter’s plans. That should be the end of it, but when they reach London matters grow more complex: the fortune-hunting Adrian Ratherscombe still has his eye ...

In her father’s household Althea Ervine was used to having the running of things–until her father disowned her (again) and Althea fled to her sister’s home in London. For the first time in her life Althea gave herself up to the gaiety of a purely social life, to the theatre and parties and the admiration of young men. The most ardent of these young men was Edward Pendarly, and Althea thought she could like him very much.  But the infuriating, fascinating Sir Tracy Calendar hin...