Jackie's Climb

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>In the darkest hour their love gave them hope. Their allies gave them victory.</em></strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Jackie's busy life-as a stableboy each morning and seamstress all afternoon-is threatened when she catches the eye of the local Viscount. Oscar Riese wants her in his bed and is prepared to ruin her mother to remove all her other choices.</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Apollo Allegro a poor relation to the Rieses has been Oscar's steward secretary factotum and general dogsbody for more than half his lifetime. Pol works in the background doing what he can for the locals and for his frail and fading grandmother. Oscar's threats to Jackie and her mother are the last straw that drives him into open rebellion.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>When Jackie climbs into Riese Hall to steal the money her mother needs for the extortionate rent their lives intertwine and take a different direction. Pol arranges their joint escape. But escape is not enough. Pol is beginning to uncover the Riese's crimes and Lady Riese is determined to eliminate the threat-even if that means killing Apollo his grandmother and Jackie.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><em>Jackie has more than one climb ahead of her-through the ranks of society and up the wall of a tower-before she and her hero can find their happy ending.</em></strong></p><p></p><p><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>(Inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk)</em></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)><u>A Twist Upon a Regency Tale</u></strong></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Lady Beast's Bridegroom</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>One Perfect Dance</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Snowy and the Seven Doves</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Perchance to Dream</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Weave Me a Rope</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Sincerest Flattery</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Inviting the Wild</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Hold Me Fast</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Trials of Alaric</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>Jackie's Climb</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Teacher's Price</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>A Gift to the Heart</span></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(15 17 17 1)>The Night Dancers</span></p>