This beautiful edition of Silk and Secrets -- the second volume of a remarkable trio of Victorian-set books by Mary Jo Putney -- is a real treat for readers who love historical romances with exotic settings. Lord Ross Carlisle was a scholar whose danger-filled journeys through Central Asia over the past dozen years had brought him fame and fortune, and enough challenges to distract him from the memory of his beautiful young wife's betrayal. But, just as he is about to embark on his next adventure, the handsome nobleman receives two pieces of news that will change his life forever. First, he's informed of his half brother's death -- a tragedy that leaves him burdened with an inheritance he truly never wanted. And second, he learns that his brother-in-law, Ian, has been imprisoned by the powerful Amir of Bokhara, a madman who is known for his hatred of all Europeans. Ross knows he should return to England, to spare his ailing father concern for the safety of his only surviving son. But both honor and desire urge him to risk one final adventure, a perilous and probably impossible mission to determine Ian's fate. Encountering his estranged wife in a desert stronghold along the way seems proof that fate has lately taken Ross in hand. For Ian's sister, Juliet, is now passionately determined to accompany the husband she once fled; and her unladylike survival skills and matchless knowledge of her adopted homeland offer the first faint glimmers of hope that the success of this mission will not mean merely returning alive with definite proof of her brother's death.