What’s a Little Duelling Between Friends

Two men met at dawn. Only one walked away. Is he a murderer or the next man marked for death?

England, 1868. Etty Redgrave will bend rules, reputations, and polite society itself to protect the innocent. This time, justice demands she stand beside the last man she ever wanted to defend.

Her childhood nemesis is accused of killing a man on the duelling field, an illegal and dishonourable act shielded by aristocratic privilege. The evidence is damning. The scandal inevitable. Yet something about the death refuses to sit neatly in its box.

Tristan Bankes-Fernsby, Duke of Rockingham, is tasked with finding the killer before the affair erupts into public disgrace. When his investigation leads him to Etty’s door, the case takes a dangerous turn. The man who died may not have been an innocent gentleman after all, and the duel may have been meant to silence him.

Forced into an uneasy alliance, Etty and Tristan investigate the men who gathered at dawn. Their investments. Their debts. Their secrets. Their ties to Whitehall. Each answer reveals another layer of deception and another reason to kill.

As whispers spread through drawing rooms and government offices alike, the stakes turn lethal. In a world where honour is currency and scandal is a weapon, some secrets are worth more than a man’s life.

And if Etty and Tristan fail to uncover the truth in time, the next body may belong to one of them.