The Crimea, February 1855

Hugh D’Abernon, Marquis of Darley, spies for the British in the Crimea, posing as a Tatar trader named Gazi Maksoud. Under his cover identity, he is traveling to Sevastopol when he comes across a woman of striking beauty beside a carriage with a smashed wheel. Aurore Clement, her manner showing her to be of the upper classes and quite self-possessed for a woman, is also a spy, but for the French. She is on her way to Sevastopol, where her brother, who joined the French army, is a grievously wounded prisoner in a hospital. Conditions are so bad, it is imperative that she find a way to transport her brother to where he can recover with careful nursing. Her brother’s illness is the perfect opportunity for Aurore to socialize with the Russian command in order to discover information about troop movements.

Attraction, as well as the uncertain conditions of war, draws them into an assignation for one night, as intense as either has ever experienced. Darley and Aurore are forced to flee the Crimea together when they are caught spying at a dinner party. As they flee to Paris, they fall in love, but neither intends commitment or marriage. Unexpected circumstances will change that.

AT HER SERVICE is at its best in the first half of the book when Ms. Johnson does what she does best -- introduce the reader to a lesser-known historical period. I do miss the footnotes that she has placed in some of her earlier novels; they help the reader to understand the era better. Hugh and Aurore are not as original as some of Ms. Johnson’s characters in earlier novels. They are likable because they are such good people, but they don’t stand out. This story does have a happily-ever-after at the end, which, given the intensity of the first chapters, seemed anticlimactic. It also has a final chapter that Ms. Johnson calls A Last Word-1914 in which the next generation takes the stage, but some of the main characters, such as Darley, appear. While it was good to know what had happened to them as they aged, it did not add anything to the story. Since Darley is known by several names, Hugh, Gazi, Darley, Viscount Fontaine, as are other characters, his reappearance as the elderly Duke of Westerlands at the end is confusing. AT HER SERVICE is third in the Darley Series, but can stand alone. Fans of Susan Johnson will want to read this one, but new readers should probably start with one of her earlier books.

Lisa Baca