Watch the Wall, My Darling (1966)

An interesting enough gothic novel about intrigue, passion and betrayal. Watch the wall, my darling is about an American girl who comes to live with her grandfather in Tretteingn Grange. During the journey, she unexpectedly meets a man whose fate is intertwined with hers. ( )

Jane Aiken Hodge was a master of the historical genre, but this gothic was my first and favorite of hers. It has all the right ingredients (willful heroine, mysterious gentlemen, smuggling, family with secrets) and everything just clicks. ( )

What a fun, historical romance! Smugglers, spies, a dark and gothic mansion by the sea, and romance with a strong, independent heroine and dashing, mysterious hero. Set at the time of Napoleon as England feared a French invasion.

The title comes from "A Smuggler's Song" by Rudyard Kipling:
Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark
Brandy for the Parson,
'Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by! ( )