Overview

Napoleon is on the run from his exile on the Isle of Elba, and the forces of the Anglo-Allied army and Prussian forces must race to meet him before his charisma and those still doggedly loyal draw any more in to support him. It is in this tense continental atmosphere that Elizabeth Payne arrives in Brussels. New to society having just been introduced - delayed due to a death in the family and an appropriate measure of mourning - she arrives wide-eyed into a society in celebration despite a battle ranging on not even outside of their territory. There she encounters the Duke Charles Scriven, wounded in the Battle of Quatre Bras, and spending time in Brussels before heading back to England. Formality strains against the frisson and chemistry between them, but there is just one problem. He is engaged to wed a woman of a higher rank than himself; betrothed since childhood. Will the forbidden, illicit passion that Elizabeth and Charles share be enough to draw him away from the lure of money and power, or will she get caught up within the web of the scheming of the aristocracy?