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Who Speaks for the Damned (Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery)
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About Who Speaks For The Damned
Product Description Sebastian St. Cyr investigates the mysterious life and death of a nobleman convicted of murder in this enthralling new historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of Why Kill the Innocent.... It's June 1814, and the royal families of Austria, Russia, and the German states have gathered in London at the Prince Regent's invitation to celebrate the defeat of Napoléon and the restoration of monarchical control throughout Europe. But the festive atmosphere is marred one warm summer evening by the brutal murder of a disgraced British nobleman long thought dead. Eighteen years before, Nicholas Hayes, the third son of the late Earl of Seaford, was accused of killing a beautiful young French émigré and transported to Botany Bay for life. Even before his conviction, Hayes had been disowned by his father, and few in London were surprised when they heard the ne'er-do-well had died in disgrace in New South Wales. But those reports were obviously wrong. Recently Hayes returned to London with a mysterious young boy in tow--a child who vanishes shortly after Nicholas's body is discovered. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is drawn into the investigation by his valet, Jules Calhoun, an old friend of the dead man. With Calhoun's help, Sebastian begins to piece together the shattered life of the late Earl's ill-fated youngest son. Why did Nicholas risk his life and freedom by returning to England? And why did he bring the now-missing young boy with him? Several nervous Londoners had reason to fear that Nicholas Hayes had returned to kill them. One of them might have decided to kill him first. About the Author C. S. Harris is the USA Today bestselling author of more than two dozen novels, including the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries; as C. S. Graham, a thriller series coauthored with former intelligence officer Steven Harris; and seven award-winning historical romances written under the name Candice Proctor. A respected scholar with a PhD in nineteenth-century Europe, she is also the author of a nonfiction historical study of the French Revolution. She lives with her husband in New Orleans and has two grown daughters. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 Somer's Town, London Thursday, 9 June 1814 Alone and trying desperately not to be afraid, the child wandered the narrow, winding paths of the tea gardens. Ji could hear laughter and the voices of other garden visitors in the distance. The day had been hot-unusually so for June, the child heard people say. But the sun was beginning to sink in the clear lavender blue sky, lengthening the shadows beneath the arbors and hinting at the chill of coming evening. The scent of roses and peonies drifted sweetly on the moist air, stirring unbidden memories of the shady walkways and placid canals of the Hong merchant's private gardens. A wave of homesickness washed over the child, bringing a painful lump to Ji's throat, and the sting of threatening tears. Ji swallowed and pushed the dangerous thoughts away. Ji had grown up hearing tales of the faraway misty islands of Britain, and somehow in the child's mind the British Isles had blurred with the Garden Islands of the Eight Immortals. Ancient Chinese legends told of island palaces made of gold and silver, where there was no pain or winter, where the rice bowls were always full, and those who ate the fruit of the enchanted trees would live forever. "Britain's not like that, child," the man called Hayes, his face taking on a pinched look, had warned Ji. "It's not like that at all." "Then what is it like?" Ji had asked. "Is it like Canton?" "No. It's not like Canton either." A gust of wind rustled the leafy branches of the lime trees overhead, jerking the child back to the present. Ji fumbled in the pocket of the strange clothes Hayes had insisted the child wear ever since that wretched day when they'd rowed out to the ship in Canton's harbor and sailed away
