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The Orchid Affair
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Read The Orchid Affair
Pink Carnation: Book 8

The Orchid Affair (2011) (edit title/settings)

by Lauren Willig (Author) (edit contributors)

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" Pride and Prejudice lives on" ( USA Today ) in Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series, which has been hailed for its addictive blend of history, romance, and adventure. In The Orchid Affair , Willig introduces her strongest heroine yet. Laura Grey, a veteran governess, joins the Selwick... read more

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Our heroine Miss Laura Grey is eager to do anything other than the governessing that has consumed her life for the past sixteen years. Recruited by the elusive flower spy, The Pink Carnation, she has just graduated from the Selwick Spy School and traveled to Paris on her first mission to, of... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Our heroine Miss Laura Grey is eager to do anything other than the governessing that has consumed her life for the past sixteen years. Recruited by the elusive flower spy, The Pink Carnation, she has just graduated from the Selwick Spy School and traveled to Paris on her first mission to, of course, do what she knows best, be a governess, albeit an undercover one, teaching young children and blending into the woodwork as a servant in the household of an important police official. Undercover as Laure Griscogne's (code named The Silver Orchid), her assignment is to observe and collect information on the movements of her new employer Andre Jaouen who works at the Prefecture de Paris under Louis-Nicolas Dubois, Chief of Police and protégé of Joseph Fouche, Bonaparte's Minister of Police. Jaouen and his arch-rival Gaston Delaroche, an agent of Fouche, are investigating a Royalist plot to overthrow the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, and reinstate the Bourbon line.

Paris is grim and imposing - a police state - and not at all what Laura remembered from her childhood. Orphaned at sixteen by the untimely death of her artistic parents, famous French sculptor Michel de Griscogne and Italian poetess Chiara de Veneti, Laura has spent the last half of her life earning her bread in the oppressive governess trade in England. Her current employers wife Julie Beniet died four years prior to her arrival and their two young children have until recently been raised by a family friend in the country. Jaouen is suspicious that Laura is a plant in his house by Gaston Delaroche, the mad megalomaniac to sinister Fouche. He does not quite know what to make of this prim, matter-of-fact governess. She on the other hand, is as equally curious of him. Handsome and austere, this disheartened Revolutionist ideals of liberté, égalité and fraternité are now a muddled dream after the coup d'état of Napoleon and his self-installation as First Consul. The age of revolutionary enlightened for both of them is now a regime of terror and fear.

Teaching Latin texts and Aesop's Fables seem rather dull and un-spy-like to Laura until her employer's secret meetings, suspicious doings and shocking reveal change the course of her mission. As Andre and Laura put aside their differences, they are forced to flee the city as husband and wife with the children under the cover of traveling performers in a Commedia dell'arte troupe. In hot pursuit is the evil Gaston Delaroche.

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First Sentence edit see section history

"That was a short flight," I said, peering out the window as the wheels of our plane touched the tarmac at Charles de Gaulle.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 8 of 9 in Pink Carnation. (standard series)

Followed by The Garden Intrigue.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Lauren Willig (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Dutton
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: 9780525951995
Page Count: 416

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3623.I575 O73 2011
  • Dewey: 813.6

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Secret History of the Pink Carnation
  • The Masque of the Black Tulip
  • The Deception of the Emerald Ring
  • The Seduction of the Crimson Rose
  • The Temptation of the Night Jasmine
  • The Betrayal of the Blood Lily
  • The Mischief of the Mistletoe

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