A Vicious Machination

<p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>As eager as Beatrice Duchess of Kesgrave is to meet her husband's newly discovered illegitimate half sister she does not want it to happen like this: in the keeper's house at Newgate.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Yes </span><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>that</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> Newgate the abject prison filled with squalor and misery to which Verity Lark has been consigned for murder. Found standing over the slain corpse of an old tormentor with a still-warm pistol in her hand she is obviously guilty.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>It is an open-and-shut case with little for an unduly curious duchess to investigate.</strong></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Except it all seems a little </span><em style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>too</em><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)> simple and straightforward. The Runner for example who apprehended Miss Lark at the scene of the crime-it's awfully convenient that he just happened to be in the neighborhood at the very moment the gun discharged. Something else has to be at work here such as a sinister figure lurking in the shadows to direct the action. Convinced of Miss Lark's innocence Bea can conceive of no other explanation.</span></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Or is the prisoner really just the victim of a horrible stroke of bad luck?</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The question plagues Bea as she struggles to figure out the answer to her most confounding riddle yet for the stakes are higher than ever and distressingly personal.</strong></p><p><br></p>