CHAPTER TWO

When Carolyn went up to change her clothes, Amalita sat down at her father’s desk.

She found the address book in which he had kept the names and addresses of all his old friends, the people with whom he had associated with before his first marriage.

Among them she found the name of the Marquis of Garlestone whom he had always stayed with on the few occasions when he visited London.

They had been great friends and Amalita remembered him saying so often.

Now in her elegant handwriting she wrote,

“My Lord,

My late husband, Sir Frederick Maulpin, often used to speak of you and your kindness to him when he was a young man and later when he stayed with you sometimes after he was married.

Now that I am out of mourning, I feel it is my duty to bring my stepdaughter to London for the Season.

She will be eighteen in a month’s time and is as beautiful as her mother was.

Could your Lordship be exceedingly kind and allow us to stay with you for two or three days while we look for a suitable house in which to entertain? I know it will not be easy to find one, but I am eager to do the best I can for Carolyn.

She must be presented at Buckingham Palace and as well attend the balls that her father and mother always wished her to enjoy.

Please, please, help me and allow us to stay with you or else perhaps your Lordship could recommend a respectable hotel.

I remain,

Yours most sincerely,

Anna Maulpin.”

She hated having to change her Christian name. But it was too unusual for it not to be remembered.

Carolyn had called her “Am-am” when she was a baby so it was easy for her to remember that she was now called “Anna”.

She remembered her father telling her once that good agents in disguise “thought” themselves into the character and personality of whoever they were pretending to be.

“It is not only what you say and do when you are in disguise,” Sir Frederick had advised. “It is also what you think. That is what I am told by a friend of mine, who has undertaken many dangerous missions in enemy territory.”

The great City of London was “enemy territory” as far as she was concerned, Amalita decided.

She knew that she would have to be very careful not to be discovered and denounced as an imposter.

It would most certainly be a disaster not only for her but even more for Carolyn.

She loved her younger sister and she thought rather pathetically that Carolyn was the only one now left of her family.

Once they had been so complete, just the four of them, father, mother and the two girls.

Now, as she was the elder, she had to take command.

She could only pray and pray that she would not make a mess of it.

When she had finished the letter, she then put it into an envelope and addressed it to the Marquis of Garlestone.

She then looked through her father’s address book to see who else she might be able to contact.

Fortunately her mother had been most methodical in everything that she undertook.

She had put a red spot next to the people Sir Frederick intended to contact

His friends all had distinguished names and important titles and Amalita felt a little shiver go through her in case they refused to help, thinking that she woul