The Lady Arianna Series by Andrea Penrose 4 MP3 AUDIOBOOK COLLECTION

Lady Arianna Hadley has had a hard life since she was fifteen years old. She and her father (the Earl of Morse) were forced to flee to the West Indies when he was accused of cheating at cards. They lived a penniless existence until her father was murdered and then things got worse for Arianna. She has secretly returned to England in the year 1813. She is in hiding working as a male chef in the home of Lady Spencer a mistress of the Prince Regent. She has gained Lady Spencers confidence and secretly goes through her papers looking for information regarding members of the former Hellfire Club. She believes these men are responsible for her father's death and plans to take revenge upon them. At a dinner for the Prince he is poisoned by a solid chocolate dessert (one of the first forms of solid chocolate in England) that she has prepared.
Although she is innocent, she is the main suspect. Lord Percival Grentham , Minister of State Security, commissions our hero Alessandro DeQuincy , Earl of Saybrook, to investigate the case. Lord Saybrook is a wounded hero of the Peninsular War, a military intelligence officer who was attached to Wellington's staff, a botanist whose special area of interest is the cacao plant , and an opium addict due to his lingering pain. While he is questioning Arianna an assailant breaks into the kitchen and tries to kill her. Ariana kills him with a kitchen knife when he first attempts to kill Lord Saybrook. Saybrook discovers Ariana is a woman . He takes her to his home to protect her. She strikes a deal with him that she will assist him in his investigation if he will help her gain entrance to the ton. She will not tell him why this is important to her. In the course of their investigation Saybrook discovers her true identity. Ariana discovers that her father had a part in The South Sea Scandal of the 1700's. There is a lengthy explanation of the Scandal in this novel. At the story's conclusion Lord Grentham who dislikes both Arianna and Saybrook ( we don't find out why) intends to prevent Lady Arianna (he knows who she is) from taking her rightful place in the ton. Saybrook declares he will marry her to prevent Grentham from doing so. He has his own reasons for defying Grentham.
In the following novels Lady Arianna and Lord Saybrook are involved in real historical events at the behest of Lord Grentham. The Conference of Vienna, Napoleon on Elba, etc, and real life characters that we have learned about in our former history lessons are prominent players in these novels.
If you like factual historical stories, political intrigue, mysteries, and a light touch of romance you will find these stories riveting.