The war with France and Napoleon is over. Alistair Ponsonby has returned home to his native country, a land he'd left ten years before. A self confessed horse dealer to the army, although he never specified which army, he'd spent his time in the Peninsular and France. Unexpectedly he recieved a message, summoning him back to France as quickly as possible. The message bore the seal of the Bishop of Toulouse. Without delay he made preparations to travel back into France, a country still in chaos. Joshua Marshall was a convicted thief who was sentenced to transportation seven years before. He had escaped his fate and in the belief he would go unnoticed amongst all the returning soldiers and sailors, he slipped back into England. His past however cast a long shadow and soon the officers of Bow Street were on the lookout for him. Events would draw these two socially different men together as with a single purpose they left their homeland once again. Soon they would find a common cause in which they could either stand or fall against the detritus of war. All they needed to succeed was trust, a rare commodity in both their lives.