Specialist in 18th-century English novels of romantic suspense --all ``i' the vein'' and crackling with marvelous period slang- -Veryan offers a second round of a new series concerning the dirty work of ``the infamous League of Jewelled Men,'' a secret society dedicated to restoring the Stuart line to the throne. Again, their target is a titled landowner--here, the sire of one of a quartet of friends met in Time's Fool (1991)--and, as always, there's romance, this time between a lordling and a lovely (most unsuitable) lass. Viscount Horatio Glendenning--chum of Gideon, hero of Time's Fool (now on his honeymoon)--suffers as much from love as from a dastardly plot. For Horatio's love is a gypsy girl, Amy Consett. To be sure, Amy was stolen at birth (and she might be of blue blood), but now she's also adept at pinching purses, flipping a knife, and ripping off a street jargon of a Cheapside persuasion. Plus she's beautiful. Horatio is nursed by Amy after being robbed and knocked about, lives in the forest, then finally returns home to find his father the earl--as well as the rest of his family--threatened with the Tower, and himself with execution as a traitor. Salvation hinges on the recovery of a jewelled pin. Two of Horatio's friends, Lieutenant James Morris and the acerbic August Falcon (inevitably, two of the next League targets), help, but it'll be Amy and her artist ``uncle'' who save the day--and Amy is due, of course, for a Pygmalion transformation. Adorable Amy is tiresome--the aristocratic lasses offer more pep and wit--but, still, this is a busy, jolly series.
