Protecting an heiress should be an easy job for Bow Street Runner John Chase. But the heiress - daughter of rich London merchant Hugo Garrod and a slave-housekeeper on his Jamaican property - is no conventional society miss. Educated to take a place among Regency England's upper crust and marry well, she has failed at London's social scene and lives isolated among the Garrod family in Clapham. And someone is playing her malicious tricks, some of which recall her island heritage of Obeah.John Chase needs to determine whether Marina is indeed a victim - or is herself a delusional and malicious trickster. If the trickster is real, is it her rejected suitor and cousin Ned Honeycutt? His demure sister? Their devoted aunt who acts as the Garrod housekeeper? A clergyman friend? Everyone around Hugo Garrod has a stake in how he disposes of his immense wealth.Meanwhile Mrs. Penelope Wolfe, an abandoned wife, flouts convention by earning her living with her pen. She's in love with barrister Edwa