Excerpt from Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

As I latchkeyed myself back into Wooster GHQ, I was aware of the smell of fresh Darjeeling and, unless I was mistaken, a spot of toast. Jeeves has an instinct for the hour of my return and for the sort of fillip that's needed.

I was scanning the evening paper when he duly shimmied in with the needful. Alongside the buttered t. was an unopened telegram, and I didn't like the look of it.

"Who the devil's this from, Jeeves?"

"I should not care to hazard a guess, sir."

I uttered a small cry as I saw the name of the sender. It took a certain mental steel to read the contents in full. They were as follows:

WOULD BE GRATEFUL USE OF YOUR SPARE ROOM WEDNESDAY FOR FIVE DAYS. STOP. BUILDING WORK MAKES HOUSE UNINHABITABLE. STOP. URGENT ERRANDS LONDON. STOP. WILL HAVE THOMAS SUNDAY. STOP. HALF TERM. STOP. AGATHA WORPLESDON.

Excerpted from Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks. Copyright © 2013 by Sebastian Faulks. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.