By Neva's waters : $b Being an episode in the secret history of Alexander the First, Czar of all the Russias

On a cold January night in 1801, a glittering state ball unfolds in the Royal Palace at Berlin, where the young Queen Louisa blends music, dance, and the novelty of Russian‑inspired dining salons. Amid the swirling waltzes, a group of young officers debates the looming alliance of France, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, while a solitary English viscount, Wilfrid Courtenay, watches from a balcony, wine in hand. A romantic freelance with a knight‑errant’s spirit, Courtenay lives for danger and adventure, his reputation for swordsmanship preceding him wherever he roams.

When a whispered proposal from the enigmatic Baranoff reaches his ears, Courtenay is drawn into a hidden struggle that reaches the very heart of Alexander I’s secret history. The intrigue pulls him from glittering courts to shadowy inns, where loyalties shift and a single missing document could change the balance of power. As he navigates courts, duels, and veiled conspiracies, his old‑world chivalry clashes with the ruthless politics of a new era.