Wounded LION

Soldier and secret agent during the latter part of the Napoleonic wars; handsome, charming and lover of many women, but saddled with a wife he neither loved nor wanted. Nicholas de Bresancourt, Duc de Valenciennes, was a complex man of many talents, but also a tormented one. Memories of his horrific experiences as a small boy in France before he escaped from the Revolution continued to haunt him and have coloured his whole life..

England 1816
He’s still not totally healed from his injuries received at Waterloo, but he’s looked death in the face and miraculously survived. Bonaparte is no longer a threat and Nicky and the wider Granville family are looking forward to a happy future. Except… Miles Ashcroft is worried. The spymaster knows Bernheim has also survived and is out there, somewhere, possibly now in England; deranged and obsessed with revenge against Nicky, The Shadow, and the people who were responsible for his father’s death.

The fiendish plot and trap is sprung and everyone is caught up in it. A terrifying, nightmarish scenario that could only have been conceived by someone as crazed as Bernheim. Even Ashcroft, Ricky Ambrose and Jack get sucked in, but they don’t hesitate to help, even at terrible risk of their own lives as every minute counts.

No one involved is unaffected by what happens, physically or mentally, and it tips an already wounded Nicky over the edge. All the nightmares and fears he’s tried to suppress over the years since his traumatic childhood come home to roost, on top of his injuries. He’s a broken man, a recluse, frightened of the dark and fit for nothing except talking to his horse, and wants nothing more than to die; except he hasn’t even got the bottle to pull the trigger. Can anyone or anything save him?