Bella Wallis respectable society widow with a secret identity as a writer of sensationalist novels is now happily engaged to the love of her life, Philip Westland. But Westland s shadowy job, working for the British government, continually takes him abroad and away from the charismatic, impatient Bella. And then there is the matter of Westland s sister s incarceration in a French nunnery, a mystery about which he refuses to say a word.Bella is convinced that their future together can only be resolved by getting to the bottom of his secret. The resulting quest will take her from the Oval, and a vicious curse laid on champion batsman W.G Grace, to the desolate moors of Yorkshire, on the trail of some decidedly dangerous women and a surprisingly chatty hermit