Banquet of Lies (33 page)

Her eyes strayed inevitably to Lord Aldridge and as she watched, he gave Lady Howe a bow and walked over to join them.

“Miss Barrington.” Lord Aldridge bowed. “You look a little at sea, Wittaker.”

Gigi tried not to smile but a small one leaked out, until she realized the two men were staring at each other, sharing a long, cool look that she could not decipher.

Then at last Wittaker swung his gaze to her, looking at her from under lashes almost as long as hers. There was that wry amusement again. “I’m thoroughly put in my place. I didn’t know your father, but in knowing you, I begin to see why he was so respected.”

It was her turn to be surprised, but before she could answer, he gave a smart bow and moved off.

She kept her gaze on him to avoid looking at Lord Aldridge for a moment longer. She liked watching him from afar, but close up, it gave her the sense of journeying in an out-of-control carriage over rough road. Thrilling, but inherently dangerous.

“He’s right, you know. You’ve done your father proud. We didn’t think you were even alive—but you not only were alive, you made it to England, with the letter safe, and were able to hide yourself and smoke out a traitor.” He reached out a hand as if to touch her and then dropped it. “You are a most unusual woman, Miss Barrington.”

Her breath caught and at last she turned to face him. She had been told too often in the last few days that she was different, but this time, she didn’t mind. “Thank you. It will be hard to settle into this life at first, I think. I’m used to traveling to wild places and meeting all manner of interesting people.”

“It sounds like being in the army.” Aldridge’s lips twisted up in a smile. “It is hard at first, getting used to a more conventional life. But there are ways to make up for it. Other excitements to be had.”

“Like acting as an agent for the Crown?” She was teasing him, but the jerk of his shoulders told her she’d hit a mark.

She quirked a brow. “Don’t worry, I won’t be applying. I’ll leave the skulduggery to you. I have another project to tackle, and the three opinions I’ve had on the matter so far tell me I’ll have my work cut out for me.”

“We’ve had a letter from Lord Dervish that you may be interested in.” He changed the topic abruptly, keeping his voice low.

“Yes?”

“Durnham’s message that you are here in London, safe, and the letter is in the right hands, reached him. He and Greenway had just returned from Lapland, and they were dealing with your father’s affairs in Stockholm. Arranging for his body to be brought back, and they’re bringing someone with them. Pierre Durand.”

Her breath caught. “Pierre? That is wonderful.”

“Who is he?”

“My chef.” She gave him a smile. “Much better than I in the kitchen. Georges used to be his sous-chef. I am, too, when he lets me in the kitchen.”

Aldridge gave a short laugh. “Doesn’t seem fair Goldfern will have two master chefs, when I haven’t had a decent meal in five days.” There was something in his face, a yearning that she hadn’t seen before. She didn’t think it was to do with the food.

“You’ve been very quiet, sequestered in your house.”

“I told you once before, my lord. I am the little mouse.” She laid on the French accent again to make him smile. “I curl up in my house for a bit, to get my courage up.”

“Courage for what? Frobisher is caught.” He frowned, but the lost look was gone, and she liked it better that way.

“To face the world without my father, without my old life. The loss of all the traveling, the adventures . . .” She
blushed, her mind flashing up the image of them in his study, kissing.

He leaned back against the wall. “You told me you wouldn’t hold me accountable for my behavior toward you in my house.” It was so close to what she was thinking, she had to look away in case he could somehow read her thoughts.

“Yes, I did.”

The bell rang for dinner, a soft, deep chime that had everyone heading for the dining room.

“I wanted to ask you if you would. Please. Hold me accountable.”

She drew in a sharp breath. Excitement pricked at the back of her neck and along her arms, and she smiled as he held out his arm to escort her in to dinner.

“You never know, Lord Aldridge. Maybe I will.”

In April 1812, Russia, England and Sweden signed secret agreements against France. Russia was in an alliance with France at that time, but relations between the two countries had deteriorated since 1810. Sir Edward Thornton was the British diplomat in Sweden who brokered the agreements between the three countries. However, while the secret deal making is quite true, everything that happens in this book regarding how those deals came to be is purely my imagination at work.

Giselle Barrington is a young woman whose experience of life is far outside that of most of her peers. Well-traveled and well-educated, and unstifled by the rules and unspoken taboos of the British aristocracy, she has lived an adventurous and fulfilling life with her father, an independently wealthy and knighted folklorist.

Because of Giselle’s father’s unusual occupation, which takes him to corners of the world that no Englishman would normally travel, he has accepted the role of secret courier for the British government at the behest of personal friends of his who work at high levels for the Crown.

When he is forced out into the open by a traitor in Stockholm, and dies rather than reveal Giselle to his killers, Giselle is determined not only to complete the mission her father committed them to—to deliver an important diplomatic document in London—but also to bring his killer to justice. She has never seen the man’s face, but she knows he is an Englishman, and that no one in the British Foreign Office can be trusted.

Using her intelligence and experience, she flees to London and gets in touch with the only person she can trust in the city: the man who used to work
as a sous-chef in her family’s kitchens in London, the now celebrated master chef Georges Bisset. With his help, she finds herself only a few doors down from her own family home—a place where she is sure her father’s killer will come looking for her—pretending to be a French cook for Lord Aldridge. She vaguely remembers Aldridge from her childhood and she knows her parents liked him and his family. That’s enough to make her feel safe, for the moment.

But, of course, she isn’t just pretending to be a cook, she actually has to be one, and she slowly learns the position is not simply about making excellent food. It comes with responsibilities and political strings in the belowstairs world of the servant pecking order. In this environment, Giselle makes more than a few mistakes, unwittingly creating an enemy who will almost be her undoing, with all her energy and focus on the man who killed her father and who is searching the streets of London for her.

But although Giselle does not navigate the belowstairs waters as nimbly as she cooks or puts clues together, her honesty and genuinely good heart win her allies too. She also begins to realize that the consequences of her subterfuge will have far-reaching effects. She interacts more and more with her new employer, Jonathan Aldridge, and as his fascination with her grows, she becomes uncomfortably aware that anything that happens between them as servant and master will be seen very differently when Aldridge discovers that they are actually social equals.

When both the enemy outside the walls of her safe house and the one inside gain the upper hand, and Giselle is at the mercy of a system skewed very much against women with no wealth or station behind them, she begins to fully realize how gilded and lucky her life as a member of the upper class is.

Topics and Questions for Discussion

1. The book opens in Stockholm, with the tense and devastating murder of Giselle’s father. What do we learn about Giselle’s relationship with her father from the subtle messages Eric Barrington sends to her as he plays mind games with his soon-to-be killer?

2. What do we learn about Giselle herself when she meets with Georges Bisset for the first time? She is the daughter of Georges’s former boss, but does this come across? Is this the meeting of friends? Mentor and student? Or something else altogether?

3. Recall your first impression of Edgars. What is the first thing he tries to do when he meets Giselle, and is this consistent with his
character throughout the book? Do you sense a duality in him, that he is fighting two sides of his nature?

4. What side of Giselle is revealed by her first meeting with Edgars? Until this point in the story, she has been under threat and devastated by grief. Does the way she handles him show the reader a new aspect of her personality? In a good or a bad way?

5. What kind of work environment does Giselle step into when she starts working for Aldridge, and how do the decisions she, Edgars and Iris make throughout the book change this?

6. What is your first impression of Aldridge? How do you think he is changed by the events in the book and do you think—his relationship with Gigi aside—he is more comfortable in his own skin by the end of the book?

7. There are numerous examples of female friendship in the novel. Gigi’s friendship with Iris, Iris’s relationships with Mavis and Babs and the short but intense friendship Gigi forms with the prostitutes in her cell at Queen Square Public Office—even the relationship between Mrs. Thakery and Mrs. Lambert, the cooks from down the road, and the short interaction they have with Gigi. How do these relationships move the novel forward, and enrich the characters’ lives?

8. The discussions Gigi has with the prostitutes in the cell at Queen Square reconfirm what she has just learned, that she is almost invisible in the eyes of society in the role she has taken on. What impact does this have on her, and how do these scenes enrich the novel?

9. What are your thoughts on Aldridge’s fascination with Gigi? Did your opinion about his motives toward her change through the novel?

10. How justified is Gigi in fearing the consequences of her actions with Aldridge when he later discovers the truth about her? Did you think Aldridge would react the way he did when he learned who she really was, and why do you think his reaction was so strong?

11. Consider the two villains in
Banquet of Lies
. Would you give them equal status, or do you think Edgars is the more understandable and sympathetic of the two? Or the worst?

12. Discuss the fairy-tale analogies that run through the book. Did this enrich the novel for you? Did you find the analogies appropriate?

13. Discuss the food in the book and the role it plays, both as a means to divide some of the characters and set them against each other (Edgars and Gigi), or bring them together (Aldridge and Gigi), or even open them to new friendships and experiences (Babs, Iris, Mavis, Rob and Harry).

14. Although the reader never discovers the details of Dervish’s relationship with Gigi’s parents, the food he eats obviously evokes strong memories of them for him, and a difficult time in his own life. Do you sometimes experience food in the same way, as a means to travel either geographically or to a certain moment in time, much like music?

15. Throughout
Banquet of Lies
a number of people refer to the Duke of Wittaker, and the reader slowly builds up an image of him and what he is like. How is this subverted at the end of the book?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. If you want to make some of the dishes Gigi serves up in
Banquet of Lies
at your book club, go to the author’s website and you’ll find them here:
http://www.michellediener.com/books/banquet-of-lies/recipes-from-banquet-of-lies/
.

2. For more Regency recipes, you can go here:
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/online-magazine/regency-recipes/
.
The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies
is another gem, handwritten and filled with recipes from the early 1700s through the mid-nineteenth century:
http://lostcookbook.wordpress.com/tag/regency-cookery/
.

3. The author did a great deal of research into chefs of the Regency period, including the history and recipes of the most famous chef of that time, Antonin Carême. This three-and-a-half-minute snippet shows British chef Heston Blumenthal making one of Antonin Carême’s favorite recipes, cock’s testicles, which was the inspiration for the threat Georges makes to Jonathan Aldridge when he comes to speak to him about Gigi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZCkW23Y8hQ
.

4. For a virtual look at Tessin Palace in Stockholm, where
Banquet of Lies
opens, you can download this beautiful brochure of the palace and its gardens:
http://www.lansstyrelsen.se/stockholm/SiteCollectionDocuments/Sv/publikationer/2012/tessinska-palatset-engelska-2.tr-2012.pdf
.