The man he was waiting for opened the door to the study with barely a click of the door latch. His silhouette was partially outlined in the dim light from the candle he held, and he was far enough away that he shouldn’t have seen the predator in the shadows, but he grew still for a moment.

Then he continued into the darkened room, although he did not head toward his desk, as might be expected. Instead, he set the candle on the mantle of the fireplace, with his back to his desk and the stranger waiting for him.

—from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer

Read the first few chapters free online.

          

As he waited in the darkened room for his quarry to appear, he felt like the shadows were loving arms clasped around his shoulders. He was comfortable in the dark—it blurred his many disguises, and it somehow made his emotions rest in slumber. Everything that felt messy inside of him was hidden by the dark so that he could pretend he was whole and without pain.

—from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer

Read the first few chapters free online.

          

The Spy You Don’t See Coming

A closer look at Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 2

Some characters arrive quietly. They don’t announce themselves. They don’t command attention.

And yet, the moment they step onto the page, everything begins to shift.

That’s the role a certain prince plays in Volume 2.

⸻

When One Person Goes Missing

At the end of the first volume, everything is already unraveling.

The danger isn’t theoretical anymore. It has a name—a man willing to experiment with something no one fully understands.

But Septimus, a member of the team, is missing. Instead of an investigation, the team must urgently search for their lost, but time begins to feel like the enemy.

⸻

A Man Alone

While the others scramble to find him, Septimus is left to endure something very different.

He is injured, isolated, and moving through a world that is no longer predictable. There is no safety in skill, no careful planning to rely on. He only has his instincts and endurance. He is determined to keep going.

⸻

The One No One Fully Understands

At the same time, a new figure enters the story.

He is known only by a title—le petit prince. A master of disguises, an agent whose loyalty is trusted, but whose identity is not widely known. Even among allies, he remains a mystery.

And now, finding Septimus may depend upon the abilities of le petit prince.

⸻

A Book That Carries the Story Into Its Design

For the hardcover Special Edition of this volume, the dust jacket itself offers more than one way to view the story.

On one side, there is a silhouette rather than a full portrait so that Septimus is present but not fully revealed.

Behind him, shadowed figures suggest something else at work, someone concealed—the mysterious prince.

Reverse the dust jacket, and you’ll find an alternate version of the Special Edition paperback cover, along with an additional image of Septimus on the back. It allows the mood to shift depending on what you choose to display.

Beneath the dust jacket, the book is bound in cloth, with the title stamped in gold. It has a weight to it.

The sprayed edges carry a scroll and floral motif that ties this volume to the others in the series. Even when closed, it points to the story world.

⸻

Details That Echo the Conflict

The endpapers are full color and feature the image from the chapter headers of the Special Edition paperback version of volume 2.

Also, the margins are not identical throughout the book. In the opening and closing pages, a more delicate scrollwork appears alongside a small illustration of a vial—the Root potion at the center of the story’s danger.

In the main chapters, that design shifts. The scrollwork becomes bolder, and the vial appears again in a different form, reinforcing how deeply it affects the events unfolding on the page.

⸻

Moments Marked as the Story Moves Forward

Each chapter opens with a two-page color spread.

The floral elements are inspired by a Regency-era design, but each chapter also...

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It was seeing the wardrobe and remembering those days that did it. Phoebe had a flash in her mind’s eye of a wooden floorboard, and a tiny symbol carved into the surface of the wood. The symbol had been barely visible since it hadn’t been filled with blacking to make it stand out, but with a child’s curiosity, she’d seen the strange flaw in the grain of the wood and crawled closer to investigate it.

It had been near the wall, next to the back edge of the wardrobe. Here, in her uncle’s bedchamber.

It had been the same symbol she’d seen just today, on the torn scrap of paper that had been caught by her arrow.

—from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer

Read the first few chapters free online.

          

It was possible Phoebe had just helped an immoral, albeit handsome, criminal. But good gracious, that man was intriguing.

On the carriage ride back to town, the Misses Layton had initially congratulated themselves in a burst of high spirits over the successful archery party. But for the latter half of the trip, they lapsed in silence and dozed with exhaustion, and Phoebe was left to her own thoughts.

Her curious interaction with Mr. Coulton-Jones was at the forefront, but the archery party had only postponed her inevitable ruminating over her new, dire situation.

Now that she had had time for the shock to fade, Phoebe felt as if she had been completely routed, like an ill-equipped army that fell helplessly before Emperor Napoleon. Only now could she think of all the things she could have said, all the arguments she could have made in her defense.

But could she have spoken with any semblance of calm in the face of Mrs. Lambert with her perfectly beautiful face and her hateful smile?

As the carriage neared her home, her heart felt quashed by a heavy stone of dread. She couldn’t return to her father’s indifference and an army of servants who knew about her banishment and likely tittered about her misfortune.

—from Lady Wynwood’s Spies, Volume 1: Archer

Read the first few chapters free online.