Good Bye to Selwicks, Past and Present, As the Pink Carnation and the Moonflower Depart

The Lure of the Moonflower by Lauren Willig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

And so the Pink Carnation Series comes to a close. Jack Reid, the half caste son of Miss Gwen's husband, also known as the Moonflower is himself part of the Carnation's mission. Though he doesn't know it, she is hoping to reunite him with his family from whom he ran away eleven years ago. Neither Jack nor the reader realize this aspect Jane's latest adventure.
No, she is in Portugal, which Napoleon is in the process of overrunning, to wrest the Portuguese Queen, who somehow missed the boat to Brazil, from the French and reunite her with her court on its way to South America. To do this, she enlists the aid of the less than dependable Moonflowegur. As they make their way tracking the Queen as a French officer and his servant, the two encounter The Gardener, the French spy with whom Jane had an affair a couple of years back.
Discarding their original disguises, they become a horse trader and his wife. In the normal scheme of things in the series, not only do the Carnation and Moonflower succeed in their mission overcoming many obstacles along the way, but they also fall in love, marry and continue as partners in their spying enterprise.
So, too, do Colin and Eloise finally get their lives sorted, marrying in Selwick Hall and looking forward to discovering ever more information from the papers in the Carnation's trunk, which is given them as a wedding present by his Aunt, Mrs Selwick-Adderly, who has a few revealed secrets of her own.
Sadly, though all loose ends are tied, it is time to say good-bye to the Selwicks, past and present. It's been fun.

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