The Concubine's Secret Part 62

She closed the door and stamped her feet on the icy ground, smiling as she drew in a deep breath of Russian air and felt her heart race. There was a future ahead, one that she and Chang An Lo would carve together. It was a risk, but life itself was a risk. That much she'd learned from Russia, that much she'd learned from Jens. With a farewell wave to Alexei and a final touch of the Chinese amulet around her neck, to tempt the protection of Chang An Lo's G.o.ds one last time, she looped her bag on to her shoulder and headed for the gateway.

THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE.

Kate Furnivall

'Wonderful, a gripping love story . . . A hugely ambitious and atmospheric epic novel'

Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth Labyrinth

1928. Exiled from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, the beautiful and fiery Lydia and her aristocratic mother, Valentina, have taken refuge in Junchow, China. With dest.i.tution looming, Lydia realises that she must use her wits to survive and resorts to stealing.

When a valuable ruby necklace goes missing, Chang An Lo, a handsome Chinese youth who is under threat from troops hunting down Communists, saves her from certain death. Thrust into clashes with the savage triads of Junchow and the strictures of the white colonial settlement, Lydia and Chang fall in love and are swept up in a fierce fight against prejudice and shame. Forced to face opium-running, betrayal and kidnap, their compelling attraction to each other is tested to the limits.