I Will Repay

Baroness Emma Orczy (1865–1945) was born in Hungary, the daughter of a baron. Raised in wealth among the aristocracy, she determined to achieve success as a painter and illustrator before starting a writing career. She wrote in English, although she did not speak the language until she was fifteen, and she produced many short stories and detective novels. Her greatest success came with the historical adventure novel The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Johanna Ward (a.k.a. Kate Reading) is an Audie Award–winning narrator and has received numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine. She is also a theater actor in the Washington, DC, area and has been a member of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company since 1987. Her work onstage has been recognized by the Helen Hayes Awards Society, among others. She and her husband live in Hyattsville, Maryland, with their two children.