Cicisbeo

An agonising separation.

A hard-won escape plan.

Unforeseen complications.

Eleanor finds herself on a ship headed to Venice with the last person in the world she would consent to go with.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. She should be living out her confinement in the privacy of Stapleford, and comforting arms of her lover, Annalise.

But Annalise has abandoned her at the last, and though she can scarce believe it, she has a goodbye letter in Annalise's hand setting out the reasons she could not go with her.

How will she survive without her? Powerless and totally at the mercy of the man she loathes and who is determined to mould her into the dutiful compliant wife she has, so far, failed to be.

When they arrive in Venice to the household of Giles's uncle, Eleanor is utterly bereft. All that mattered is lost to her now. All that remains to her is perdition. She has no money, no friends to seek assistance from and no one even knows where she is.

It seems as if there is no way out and she must somehow learn to endure this new existence, but allies, most unlikely, surface and help to rekindle her fighting spirit. Though the path is neither easy nor certain, once resurrected, the possibility of escape is enough to sustain her determination to achieve it, at any cost, by any means...

However, just as the way appears, she is caught in a new conundrum that was never part of the plan and derails her intended return to England.