The Lost Despatch

In the wintry Maryland woods of December 1864, Captain Lloyd and Secret Service agent Symonds stalk a shadowy Confederate spy ring whose messages, couriers, and hidden intermediaries reach toward Washington itself. Their hunt turns violent when a supposed military rider from Harper's Ferry attacks Lloyd and vanishes into the dark, revealing that the enemy's most dangerous agent may be a woman. In Washington, that suspicion collides with society: at a soldier's funeral, Lloyd confronts laughing girls and is checked by the quick-witted, self-possessed Nancy Newton, whose charm and intelligence unsettle him even as she secretly destroys a message hidden in her dog's collar. As gossip, music, and wartime anxiety mingle in drawing rooms and at the Warren home, Major Robert Goddard is drawn toward Nancy, while Doctor Boyd, Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Arnold, and others watch loyalties shift beneath polished manners. A red-gold hair from the spy's hat seems to identify the culprit, and Lloyd becomes convinced Nancy is the traitor he has been pursuing. Fueled by betrayal, jealousy, and grief, he presses for her arrest, while Nancy moves through Washington's glittering balls and political salons under a cloud of danger, romance, and deception. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.