Wednesday Work-In-Progress Snippet

Thanks for taking a minute to read an excerpt from my work-in-progress.  Have a great day.

Rupert had to admit it felt good to throw his title at the condescending butler and put him in his place.  The man’s sudden improvement of manners gave him more than a little satisfaction.  Without further discussion, Rupert found himself led post haste to an extravagantly appointed drawing room, where he immediately proceeded to memorize every detail of the assorted pictures and personal effects.  One portrait, however, made the need to remember anything else at once unnecessary.  As Alexandra had already revealed about a similar picture that hung in the her family's drawing room in Whitchurch, the man in the portrait was her father.
My second Regency is mainly in the hero’s point-of-view.  Lord Rupert is the rakish son of the Marquess of Lansdowne.  His covert escapades to ferret out a ring of aristocratic criminals requires that he disappear into the British countryside for a short time under a false identity.  Here he meets Alexandra Dancy, a country miss whose family hides its aristocratic origins because they must guard a dark secret.  How can the two overcome the prejudices and hidden identities that divide them?  Sorry, you will just have to wait and read it to learn the answer.