In Service to a Lyon

Enter the world of the most notorious gambling den in London, where matches are made... unusually. Welcome to the world of THE LYON'S DEN: The Black Widow of Whitehall Connected World, where the underground of Regency London thrives... and loves.

A lowly servant who may be French nobility. A scarred English lieutenant who hates all French. Can these two find love in the Lyon’s Den?

Marie Cadough is a French servant who’s learned to hide who she is. Sent to England as a child to flee the French Revolution, she and her uncle escaped suspicion by working as servants in a London household. But when she is dismissed at the hands of an unreasonable mistress, her uncle finds them new positions in the household of Mrs. Dove-Lyon, the Black Widow of Whitehall.

Lieutenant Samuel Gage is scarred by war. Having lost his closest friend to a duel and seen hearts broken by heartless Frenchwomen, he has developed an irrational dislike of all things French. But when he suffers painful memories from loud music at the Lyon’s Den, a kind servant takes pity on him. He never expected her to be French.

Marie wants to do well at her new employer’s, so when Mrs. Dove-Lyon asks her to pose as a lady and act as a French-speaking companion to a visiting Frenchwoman, Marie agrees. She never expected to fall for an Englishman in the process.

But not all is well. The other servants are jealous of Marie’s rise to success, and Marie’s new friends are keen to discover her origins. A mutual attraction begins to simmer between Samuel and Marie, but their different backgrounds and the stiff social hierarchy of Regency London pose formidable barriers to their blossoming love.

He is the third son of a baronet—she is a maidservant in a gambling den. Their worlds could not be more different. But as their desire increases, so does the danger, for scheming servants and Marie's old employers may ruin all their hopes and dreams for the future.

Will Marie and Samuel find love or remain worlds apart? Find out in a new historical romance from bestselling author E.L. Johnson.