His officers studied the position in the countryside just outside Waterloo and showed their approval with a nod.
“Well, I think speed is the name of the game here,” the Duke suggested. “I don't want Napoleon to get there before I do and take over my headquarters building first.”
A few officers laughed nervously.
“I could see him doing it. Then we would show up before dawn, and his grand army would close in around us on all sides.” The Duke of Wellington visibly shuddered. “I hate to think of the massacre that would ensue.”
Lizette was so still as she clung to the tree branch and listened outside the hotel on the Rue Montagne du Parc that night of June 15, 1815 that she did not notice that a fat night owl had landed at the end of the same branch. He hooted into the night sky so loudly that she practically jumped. Her sudden movement made the branch crack a little. That noise immediately attracted the attention of the officers gathered inside the lighted room upstairs at an hour on the far side of midnight.
She held her breath and cringed, putting her head down low to the branch. But Colonel Ware had to be the one to come to the window and peer out. He was looking right into her eyes.
“Why, look, sir, there's that French girl there!” Colonel Randolph Ware shouted. “She looks like somebody I saw at the Duchess of Richmond's ball tonight. Brown hair. Pink dress with rosettes. I remember her. I thought she was a spy and searched all over the garden looking for her in vain just so she could show up in a tree outside your hotel room window, Your Grace.”
Half spy, half young Frenchwoman, Lizette de Crecy just wants to survive and rescue her family from the British who have invaded the town of Waterloo and set up a headquarters building on the main street of town. But it gets increasingly more difficult as she gets emotionally involved with Colonel Randolph Ware who is on the other side and is part of the invading force. Will she find love or death at the crossroads? Find out in Inn at the Crossroads, an Edward Ware Thrillers prequel.