This takes place between the end of the Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign – and Sharpe pursues Ducos to Italy, though not before he’s fought in the climactic battle at Toulouse which is Wellington’s last victory in the Peninsular War. Napoleon is exiled to Elba and, in the chaos of the first days of peace, the Emperor’s personal treasury gets ‘lost’. Sharpe is accused of the theft, smells Ducos’s involvement and so the chase is on. It takes Sharpe and Harper to Normandy where, in a dilapidated chateau, Sharpe meets Lucille. I never meant Sharpe to end up with a Frenchwoman, living in France, but so he did and does, though not before settling with Ducos first.
