"Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) was a British Victorian-era novelist famous for her sensationalist writing.

"Good Lady Ducayne" is a sensational tale of a young woman, Bella Rolleston, who secures a job as paid companion to a very elderly and wealthy aristocratic lady who offers her a handsome salary, a winter travelling on the Italian Riviera and the Italian Lakes, and very little to do. It all seems too good to be true. And when Bella learns that the old lady's previous two companions died under mysterious circumstances and she herself is becoming paler and sicker... it does seem as though something sinister is afoot. "