1826: Bonaparte is dead and there is peace in Europe. But in Portugal, the rumour is of civil war following the death of King John VI. With Spain, and perhaps even France, threatening to take sides, England’s historic treaty with Portugal is set to be invoked.

Newly returned from India, Matthew Hervey joins a mission sent to assess the situation and lend support to the Portuguese Regent. But the Peninsula is redolent with memories. It was there, nearly twenty years earlier, that the young Cornet Hervey had his first taste of action when the 6th Light Dragoons played their part in Sir John Moore’s defiant stand at Corunna. And as he prepares for battle once more, Hervey finds himself confronting ghosts from his past…