These Old Shades

Considered the book that launched Gerogette Heyer's career These Old Shades features two of Heyer's most memorable characters: Justin Alastair the Duke of Avon and Leonie whom he rescues from a life of ignominy and comes to love and marry.. The Duke is known for his coldness of manner his remarkable omniscience and his debauched lifestyle. Late one evening he is accosted by a young person dressed in ragged boy's clothing running away from a brutal rustic guardian. The Duke buys Leon and makes the child his page. Leon is in fact Leonie and she serves the Duke with deep devotion. When he uncovers the true story of her birth he wreaks an unforgettable revenge on her sinister father in a chilling scene of public humiliation.