‘THERE SEEMS TO BE A MESSAGE WRITTEN INSIDE YOUR CHRISTMAS PUDDING. AND IT’S IN FRENCH. MEET ME AT FARLEY CASTLE, TOMORROW AFTERNOON. MOST URGENT.’

Her great friend Jane Austen warned her against accepting a position at Miss Climpson’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies. Nevertheless, just before Christmas, Miss Arabella Dempsey finds herself face to face with French aristocrats and international spies — and it’s all because of Reginald ‘Turnip’ Fitzhugh, often mistaken for the elusive spy the Pink Carnation, who has blundered across her path.

When Turnip and Arabella discover a cryptic French message inside a beautifully wrapped Christmas pudding, they are launched on a festive adventure — from Jane Austen’s modest house to the grand estate of the Dukes of Dovedale — and, perhaps, love blossoms along the way…

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