Likewise, to avoid bogging the text down with countless iterations of Mr., Miss, Mrs., Monsieur, Mademoiselle, and Madame, I have put many of the characters on a first-name basis who would probably have addressed each other more formally in 1873. I hope that readers’ enjoyment of the story will be unimpeded by these instances of authorial license.
Also by Amanda DeWees
Follow the adventures of Sybil’s seamstress, Clara, in
With This Curse
Winner of the 2015 Daphne du Maurier Award in historical mystery/suspense
Can a curse strike twice in a woman’s life?
In 1854, seventeen-year-old chambermaid Clara Crofton was dismissed from Gravesend Hall for having fallen in love with Richard Blackwood, the younger son of the house. Alone in the world, Clara found a tenuous position as a seamstress, but she always blamed the Gravesend curse for the disaster that had befallen her—and for Richard’s death soon after in the Crimean War.
Now, more than eighteen years later, Richard’s twin, Atticus, seeks out Clara with a strange proposal: if she will marry him and live with him as his wife in name only to ease the mind of his dying father, Atticus will then endow her with a comfortable income for the rest of her life. Clara knows that he is not disclosing his true motives, but when she runs out of options for an independent life, she has no choice but to become Atticus’s wife.
For Clara, returning to Gravesend as a bride brings some triumph… but also great unease. Not only must she pretend to be a wellborn lady and devoted wife to a man whose face is a constant reminder of the love she lost, but ominous portents whisper that her masquerade brings grave danger. “This house will take from you what you most treasure,” her mother once warned her. But the curse has already taken the man Clara loved. Will it now demand her life?
Don’t miss Sybil’s previous adventures in
Nocturne for a Widow
Widowed on her wedding night!
Sybil Ingram was once the toast of the London stage, but now that she’s 28 years old—very well, nearly 30—her draw isn’t what it used to be, and her theater troupe is foundering. When her trusted mentor asks her to take the blame for his financial misdeeds, Sybil sees no choice but to retire from the life she loves and move to America to marry New York City hotel magnate Alcott Lammle. But her path to happiness is cut short when Lammle dies suddenly—and in financial ruin.
Widowed, nearly penniless, and unable to return to England, the determined diva sets out to stake a claim on Brooke House, a Gothic revival manor in the wilds of the Hudson River Valley. She soon finds, however, that a ghostly presence wants her gone. Even worse, her claim is challenged by the most insolent, temperamental, maddeningly gorgeous man she’s ever met: Roderick Brooke, a former violin maestro whose career ended in a dark scandal.
Soon it’s a battle of wills as Sybil matches wits—and trades barbs—with Roderick, finding herself increasingly drawn to him despite her growing suspicion that there is a connection between him and the entity that haunts Brooke House. But an even greater threat arises in the form of the mysterious and powerful queen of local society, Mrs. Lavinia Dove. For reasons that Sybil can’t imagine, Mrs. Dove is determined to oust Sybil from her sphere—and she is willing to go to deadly lengths to do so. Sybil and Roderick will have to overcome their mutual animosity to defeat her… and to escape with their lives.
Acknowledgments
Writing The Last Serenade posed some new challenges for me, and I want to thank the friends who helped me tackle them. As always, plot whisperer Maurice Cobbs was invaluable. Charles R. Rutledge was a stalwart weaponry consultant. My brilliant beta readers were Lisa Blackwell, Abby Dowling-Baker, Susan Goggins (Raven Hart), Elizabeth Kingston, and laser-eyed Peyton Smith-Hopman. Diana Plattner generously provided editorial advice. Any remaining errors—including any omissions in these acknowledgments—are my own.
About the Author
Atlanta author Amanda DeWees wrote her doctoral dissertation on 19th-century vampire literature, the perfect training—though she didn’t know it at the time—for writing Victorian gothic romance. Her novels include With This Curse, which won the 2015 Daphne du Maurier Award for historical mystery/suspense. Visit her at amandadewees.com to learn more about her books.
Books by Amanda DeWees
Cursed Once More: The Sequel to With This Curse
The Heir of Hawksclaw (novella)
The Last Serenade
Nocturne for a Widow
Sea of Secrets
With This Curse
The Ash Grove Chronicles:
The Shadow and the Rose
Casting Shadows
Among the Shadows
Short stories:
“On Shadowed Wings” (Ash Grove prequel)
“Upon a Ghostly Yule”
Copyright Notice
The Last Serenade
Sybil Ingram Victorian Mysteries, Book 2
Copyright © 2016 Amanda DeWees
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design
Visit the author at amandadewees.com.
Be sure to sign up for Amanda’s newsletter for release news, bonus content, and sale alerts.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Also by Amanda DeWees
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Books by Amanda DeWees
Copyright Notice