The Counterfeit

One manuscript. One courtesan. Millions of lives, hanging in the balance.

The year is 1824 and the streets of London are awash with scandal, for rumour has it that the late, great Lord Byron has written a memoir.

Byron is well-known to have rampaged across Britain and the continent, leaving a coterie of lovelorn women - and for that matter, men - in his wake. Publication of his memoirs stands to at the very least violate every known social norm. At worst it could rock the most foundational of all social structures - the monarchy itself.

Under enormous pressure, publisher John Murray decides to toss the only copy of the manuscript into the fire of his London home, believing that to be an end to the matter.

It isn't.

Enter libertine, sometimes-courtesan and fearless defender of women's rights, Belle Brodie. The very Belle Brodie who had it on good authority that John Murray's son had made a copy of the manuscript, and promptly taken it upon herself to steal it.

As Belle flees to Paris in possession of the one document that has the ability to blow up the lives of entire aristocratic dynasties, she finds herself pursued by publishers, scorned ex's of Byron and agents of the English crown alike. Thankfully life in post-revolutionary Paris is a hotbed of sexual intrigue, gossip, and people on the make, with plenty of nooks and crannies for Belle to escape into. But the truth can't hide forever. Or can it?

So much history is lost. But what if it was only spirited away?