Soldier and secret agent during the latter part of the Napoleonic wars when Wellington and the British army were endeavouring to help force the French out of Spain. He was handsome, charming, and a 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.
BOOK FOUR: Northern France 1815
He's given his word to Wellington that he would join his staff, and he cannot break it.
Once again, Nicky finds himself working undercover. This time he is amongst the re-grouping French forces in northern France, risking his life to gain intelligence on their strength, capability and movements, while Bonaparte prepares himself to confront Wellington, personally and finally.
However, as before, Bella isn't going to sit and wait for her husband in London so she decides to go to Valenciennes, the nearest she can get to wait in safety, just wanting to be as near as possible to him.
Unsurprisingly, also worried about Nicky and Bella, the eccentric but close Granville family decide to follow suit. Eventually, they all end up in Brussels, waiting and worrying as the epic battle finally takes place at Waterloo. As the fighting progresses and Wellington finally wins the day, they expect news of Nicky or his return to them. But no one has seen him and the battlefield is utter carnage; thousand upon thousand of dead and injured men and horses.
Still they wait, and wait, and fret, until a desperate Francis and Jack finally go in search of him, or any information as to his whereabouts, or fate.
And then, 25 years after he mysteriously disappeared, The Shadow makes a surprise re-appearance….
