Lord Armadales Iberian Lady — Sharon Sobel

Will their secrets be the death of them?

Even her family's ball cannot distract Lady Cassandra Eastham from the very serious business of her life -- secretly translating highly confidential documents for agencies of the British and Portuguese governments. When an important message arrives on the night of the ball, Cassandra, eager to read it, escapes to the seclusion of a dark corner. There she is interrupted by Weston Barrington, the Earl of Armadale and a hero in the Peninsula War.

Although Lord Barrington appears eager to resume the life of an English gentleman, Cassandra instinctively distrusts him and refuses to be seduced by his dashing looks. Lord Armadale -- West to his friends -- believes there is a spy in the Eastman household, but is drawn to Lady Cassandra despite his determination to remain a bachelor. When a brutally injured young woman arrives at Eastham House and dies in the marble foyer, the incident unites him and Cassandra in a dangerous partnership.

The dead woman cannot be an accidental target for murder. Despite being dressed in rags, she looks enough like Lady Cassandra to be her twin sister. And Cassandra might be the murderer's next victim. As Cassandra and West work together to uncover the woman's identity, West comes to realize his responses to his beautiful partner have more to do with desire than detection and deceit. Will he unravel the mystery before he loses the lady with whom he is quickly falling in love?

Sharon Sobel is the author of ten historical and two contemporary romance novels, and served as Secretary and Chapter Liaison of Romance Writers of America. Her short story, The Jilt, has been selected for inclusion in the second RWA anthology of romance fiction. She has a PhD in English Language and Literature from Brandeis University and is an English professor at a Connecticut college, where she co-chaired the Connecticut Writers' Conference for five years. An eighteenth century New England farmhouse, where Sharon and her husband raised their three children, has provided inspiration for either the period or the setting for all of her books.