BookList - Denise Perry Donavin
Miss Tonks is a poor relation, a well-born Regency spinster who must live gratefully off the donations of her married sister, even though their parents' estate should have been equally divided. Miss Tonks has banded with others of her ilk to set up a London hotel called the Poor Relations. Originally intended as an embarrassment (to force funds out of miserly relations), the hotel has become a thriving establishment. But with a recent fire and the low income of the off-season, money is scarce. So, it is Miss Tonks' turn to raise funds. She decides to play highwayman/woman and hold up her sister's coach in order to snatch some diamonds. The result is a tumultuous affair that draws in her niece and the handsome nobleman who happens to live next door. Naturally, as in all of Chesney's fiction, romance is the final result, but only after plenty of neatly contrived disasters.