Meanwhile, I decided to resample the chocolates that are already sitting on my shelf. I want it now, but I am savoring the knowledge that it will be a delight beyond measure when I finally find its hiding place. It is like knowing there is a Godiva chocolate bar hidden just out of reach. I am waiting for copies of them to arrive.

I have discovered that there are two books she has written that I have not read. I cannot express how much I love Mary Stewart and her writing. You find yourself holding your breath with Linda Martin and feeling her desperation as she attempts to unravel her suspicions from the facts. She transports you into this imagined world and anything that sounds unbelievable or cliche in a blurb just disappears into her creative and believable writing style. The thing about Mary Stewart is that she takes all those well-worn elements and creates something new and thrilling from them. It has all those wonderful details that draws one in: the orphaned governess, posing as less than she is, the French mansion with vast estate grounds and gardens, the handsome but rakish gentleman, and a life-or-death mystery that must be solved. When I was young I read this book more than once, and I thought I might find it had lost some of its allure now that I am so much older-NOT SO. I sank back into it, and it was as wonderful as the very first time I read it.

When I spotted Mary Stewarts backlist was available on Kindle, (some are only 99p at the moment) I downloaded the ones I read as a teenager.

Reading Nine Coaches Waiting again was like coming home and finding someone had already lit you a fire and left you a hot toddy. I seem to have run out of books to read (she said, valiantly ignoring her enormous TBR pile). We know immediately that all is not as it seems in the Valmy household, as does Miss Martin, and the sorting of the good from the bad is a dangerous endeavor. Linda Martin, an orphaned English girl, has accepted a job as governess at Chateau Valmy in the French countryside.

Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart