Under the reign of Louis XV, corruption and intrigue have been allowed to blossom in France. Lord Justin Alastair, the notorious Duke of Avon, known for his coldness of manner, his remarkable omniscience, and his debauched lifestyle. Society believes the worst of Justin, who is clearly proud of his sobriquet, 'Satanas'. In a dark Parisian back alley, he is accosted by Leon, a young person dressed in ragged clothing running away from a brutal rustic guardian. The Duke buys Leon, a redheaded urchin with strangely familiar looks...

Duellist and gamester, the young Marquis of Vidal had fairly earned the sobriquet 'Devil's Cub' - a tribute to the wilder excesses of his father, the Duke of Avon. When Mary Challoner discovered Dominic's plans to run away with her lovely sister, she donned cloak and mask in a daring impersonation and found herself bound for France with the most notorious rake in Georgian London. The many admirers of These Old Shades will meet some familiar friends.

"From the moment when I first set eyes on you I have disliked you ..." Rich and lovely, ardent and wilful, any restraint maddened Judith Taverner. But in her handsome guardian she met her match - and more. Julian St John Audley, Fifth Earl of Worth, was one of the Bow-window set, a gamester, an excellent whip and a friend of Beau Brummell. Merely thinking of him was enough to put Judith into a rage. Before long she discovered there were other people who also hated her legal guardian ...

In 1815, beneath the aegis of the Army of Occupation, Brussels is the gayest town in Europe. And the widow Lady Barbara Childe, renowned for being as outrageous as she is beautiful, is at the centre of all that is fashionable and light-hearted. When she meets Charles Audley, dashing aide-de-camp to the great Duke of Wellington himself, her joie de vivre knows no bounds – until the eve of the fateful Battle of Waterloo ...

These Old Shades Under the reign of Louis XV, corruption and intrigue have been allowed to blossom in France, and Justin Alastair, the notorious Duke of Avon and proud of his soubriquet 'Satanas', flourishes as well. Then, from a dark Parisian back alley, he plucks Leon, a redheaded urchin with strangely familiar looks, just in time for his long over-due schemes of revenge on the Comte de St. Vire. Among the splendours of Versailles and the dignified mansions of England, Justin begins to unfold his sinister plans—until, that is, Leon becomes the ravishing beauty Leonie... Unanswered questions. Lovely, titian-haired Leonie, ward of the dashing Duke of Avon, had all Paris at her feet. Yet her true origins remained shrouded in mystery. And neither the glittering soirees nor the young aristocrats who so ardently courted her could still the question that plagued her young heart. What was her mysterious parentage? Just one man held the secret, the one she feared most in the world—the iron-willed Comte de Saint-Vire, deadly enemy of the Duke. He would give her the answer—for a price. But could she betray the man she secretly, helplessly loved? And could this proud young beauty bear to face the truth when it came? Devil's Cub Dominic Alistair, Marquis of Vidal is a bad lot a rake and seducer, reckless, heedless, and possessed of a murderous temper. He is known by friend and foe alike as the "Devil's Cub." Yet as the handsome and wealthy heir to a Dukedom, he is considered a good prospect on the marriage market. Vidal currently has his eye on the young, lovely, and unintelligent Sophia Challoner, and Sophia's greedy mother is more than happy to encourage his dubious attentions. When lovely, saucy Mary Challoner had practiced her hold deception upon the hot-blooded, fiery-tempered young Marquis of Vidal—substituting herself for her young sister he had thought to carry off to France—she had little notion he would grimly hold her to her part of the bargain. Now he had left her, and she was alone, a stranger in a strange land, prey to the intrigues of glittering, heartless, 18th century Paris. Only one person could rescue her—the Marquis himself. But how could she ever trust this man? How could she even hope to overcome the contempt in which he held her? And how could even the sudden flowering of her love ever bridge the terrible gap between them?