Writing with a velvety touch, Margaret McPhee stirs passions with tales that harken back to a more romantic age - while raising pulses in the here and now. McPhee is at her scandalous best in Unmasking the Duke's Mistress, which features Arabella, a fallen woman about to don the mask of Miss Noir at Mrs. Silver's House of Pleasures. Arabella's former love, Dominic Furneaux, is the last man she hoped would enter her new place of employ, but when he does, he surprises her by offering a way out - as his mistress.