In A Dangerous Legacy by Elizabeth Camden, Lucy and Nick Drake are siblings involved in a 40-year old lawsuit against their uncle in the early 1900s. Their grandfather, Eustace, had developed a valve that enabled water to be pumped through pipes to the upper floors of buildings. He was more interested in tinkering than in business. But while he was away fighting in the Civil War, his brother made a business out of the valve. Then when his brother’s son took over the business, he raised the price of the valve so that owners of tenement building could not afford them. Poor people had to bring their water upstairs in buckets.

Lucy and Nick’s family wanted not only their share of the earnings from the valve, but they wanted the price set more reasonably. But their uncle was wily and could afford the best lawyers, while they couldn’t. So the case had been dragging on for years.

Lucy had a penchant for Morse code and worked as a telegraph operator for the Associated Press news agency. Since Reuters, an English company, had a cable to receive news from some foreign countries that the AP did not have yet, the AP paid them for the use of their cable. But they had been receiving those cables late, and Lucy just knew it was because of the insufferable English head of the New York Reuters’ office two floors above the AP in the Western Union building, Sir Colin Beckworth. She confronted him and disliked him, though she found him charming.

Colin finds Lucy attractive, spirited, and intelligent. But he is looking to marry a rich American heiress because he has a old estate in England that needs repairs. The mansion is not just home to him, with all the memories and heritage involved, but he’s responsible for ninety tenants.

Yet as he and Lucy continue to run into each other, they continue to be attracted, even though they know they could never be together.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit and Lucy’s uncle’s machinations escalate.

I listened to the audiobook but also checked out the Kindle version from Libby to get the author’s notes. I wondered if the situation with the valve was based on a true story, but she didn’t say. The notes went into a little more detail about the controversy of where what became the Panama Canal would be built (which figures into the story) and the nature of the AP and Reuters working together though they were rivals.

I liked both Lucy and Colin. The plot took some odd twists that surprised me, but the end did turn out like I thought it might.

The faith element was pretty mild.

I didn’t realize when I started this book that it was the first of an Empire State Trilogy. I felt Nick’s side of the story was less well-developed, but then I saw the next book focuses on him. This book was enjoyable but didn’t leave me chomping at the bit to get the next book, but I probably will at some point.