Behind the discreet facade of proud wealth and privilege, a London scandal is brewing... The most provocative charmer outside the demimonde gives way to forbidden passion at the Moonlight Masquerade... An embittered Earl tries to locate a missing heir and wreck the titled future of his son...
Turbulent romance, glittering intrigue in fashionable Regency London.
The novel was first published in paperback by Ballentine Books, New York in 1979.
Two marriages, one made for love and the other cynically, to gain a male heir for an Earldom, lead into this saga of generations of the same families in London and the home counties.
Viscount Shaldon, deprived of his mother by her death in his early teens from a loveless marriage, is known to be capricious when it comes to young debutantes. When his father sets in front of him the compelling beauty of the impetuous Cynthia Lydney, no one could have imagined that a masquerade would prove so fatal to the earl’s designs.
Yet it is the Earl’s own dishonesty and his cruel desertion many years before of the woman who had been his first and secret wife, which brings mystery into the mix of intrigue, scandal and romance. As Viscount Shaldon faces the possibility of disinheritance by the sudden appearance of an older half-brother of whose existence he had been kept in ignorance, he begins to realize the true promptings of his heart…
Comments from users on Amazon
“Anyone who enjoys regency novels knows that there is no one better than author Georgette Heyer, who wrote dozens of excellent traditional regency novels. It is a common complaint on Regency listserves/websites, that Ms. Heyer's books are so good that any other author has a difficult time matching her skill in witty dialogue, plot, and historical accuracy. I'm happy to say that I've just recently discovered Alice Chetwynd Ley and she is a very fine regency author. I've read a number of her books now and "Regency Scandal" is her very best, and is very similar to the quality of a Georgette Heyer novel. This novel is over 400 pages long, with many twists and turns involving a number of generations and how their lives are intertwined. There is of course a romance component (but this is a clean regency) but the plot stands on its own. Disregard the dramatic cover art and the ridiculously dramatic description on the back of the novel, and you will sit down to a terrific story, including a mistaken identity. Enjoy!”
