The Concealed Truth

The novel is built around questions of parentage and hidden identity. It sets out to reveal what truly lies behind Edward's parents and the marchioness, and asks who the tender lover she abandoned might have been. Lady Anendale, meanwhile, is struck by how closely Edward's voice matches that of a gentleman she once imagined herself in love with, and the reader is left to wonder why the two sound so alike.

Mr. Colvill returns to his homeland after almost nineteen years abroad. He is wealthy but has found little happiness, and despite the bustle of a crowded city he feels utterly alone. His conversations with Edward about his own past help him work toward the answers he seeks. Another puzzle concerns a woman who posed as the marchioness's daughter under the name Lady Elinor. Who she really was, and what she hoped to gain, remain open questions.

Romance runs alongside the mysteries. Frederic falls in love with the marchioness's daughter, which raises doubts about what his future will hold. Alice comes home with a young woman she introduces to Edward as Janet Cameron. Edward is ready to love her from the start, but when he notices in her face the clear blue eyes of his father, Mackenzie, partly shaded by dark lashes, his feelings deepen beyond anything he has known before.