Fallen Fortunes

The year is 1706. At the Battle of Ramillies, where Allied forces clash with the French in a storm of cavalry and cannon smoke, a young Englishman named Grey Dumaresq rides over a ridge and into history. He sees the Duke of Marlborough amid the chaos, seizes his moment, and embarks upon a path that will lead from the bloody fields of Flanders to the treacherous drawing rooms of London society. Years of wandering have left Grey world-weary and financially strapped. Returning to England, he finds his father dead, the family estate in ruins, and a cunning kinsman already circling like a vulture, having profited from the Dumaresq name's fall from grace. What remains of Grey's inheritance has been systematically plundered, his honor questioned, his future rendered uncertain. The only inheritance left to him is a burning desire to reclaim what was lost and restore his family's name. This is a novel about the violence of war and the subtler violence of class. About what a man will do when everything has been taken from him, and whether redemption is possible when the world has decided you are nothing.