Delighted on a Summer's Evening: a Thieves of the Ton novella

Life isn’t always perfect, but the key to living happy is enjoying what you have.

Since the peril and danger stalking them has passed, the Hawkins family is at their country estate in Kent to rest. Emmaline, the Countess of Archewyne, is both excited and melancholy when she stumbles upon a note written by her father—the Earl of St. Ives—before he was murdered that outlines a treasure hunt just like he’d done for her when she was a child. Perhaps she can finally tell him goodbye.

Miles Lawrence Hawkins, the fifth Earl of Archewyne, has much on his mind now that his friend and mentor has died, leaving the responsibilities of the king’s agents to him. First and foremost, he wants to make certain his growing family is still intact after the horrors they’d come through, but how to usher in healing when well-meaning friends and colleagues keep dropping by and shattering the peace? Not to mention the damned geese that won’t leave him alone.

As Emmaline and Miles follow the clues her father hid about the estate, they make plans for a holiday to Egypt, the country where their love affair first began. Throughout it all, St. Ives’ written words bring them closer as a family. With their children and the ever-present geese gathered around, the treasure they seek is found, and serves to make them all delighted on a summer’s evening.