The Lost House

In a quiet London chancery, the senior diplomats are scattered across the empire, leaving the Second Secretary to shoulder the day’s duties alone. A frantic page bursts in with a half‑crown wrapped around a crumpled note that has been tossed out of a window, and the atmosphere shifts from idle boredom to urgent curiosity. The secretary’s dry sarcasm masks a deeper concern as he hands the paper to Austin Ford, a keen American correspondent stationed in the city.

The note, penned in a hurried hand, claims that a woman named Dosia Pearsall Dale is being held against her will in a street‑side house, her uncle plotting to seize her inheritance. With a vague address and a warning of imminent danger, the message pulls the diplomat and the reporter into a tangled web of family betrayal, international intrigue, and a desperate race against time. Listeners will be drawn into the early stages of a mystery that weaves together embassy politics, hidden identities, and a chase that could reshape the lives of everyone involved.