Mary Nichols, Author of Historical Fiction

First published by Mills & Boon.

Now updated as an ebook and published by Mary Nichols

Available for the Kindle from Amazon and on Kindle Select to borrow. 

ISBN: 9781 4764 7402 1

Stella Gardiner has often gone on botanical expeditions with her father and when he is summoned to Trieste to confer with Maximilian, Archduke of Austrian Italy, she accompanies him. It is here she meets and falls in love with Leo Manfred, Captain of Hussars and court painter. But when Maximilian accepts the throne of Mexico, Leo goes with him, leaving a heartbroken Stella. She and her father return to England and Stella meets and marries James Wainright. When Maximilian invites Professor Gardiner to join him in Mexico to study the plant life, he takes James with him. Her father dies in Mexico under mysterious circumstances but instead of coming home James decides to carry on with his work in Mexico. Her mother also dies and Stella finds she is almost penniless and sets out for Mexico to search for her husband. But almost the first person she meets when she arrives is Leo Manfred.
The country is in great turmoil and is certainly not the place for a lone female and Maximilian orders Leo to accompany Stella on her search, much to his chagrin. From the start Stella becomes entangled with the troubles of the country, not helped by Leo’s apparent reluctance to obey Maximilian’s instructions to help her find her husband and an American ex-confederate who has made his home in Mexico. Beset by subterfuge, danger and hardship, Stella believes only finding her husband and returning to England will cure her of her love for Leo. But is she deluding herself?