Captain Jack Vespa, and aide-de-camp of Lord Wellington's in the battle against Napoleon, is sent home from Spain after having been badly wounded. While he's convalescing, Jack, his military friends, and a spirited young lady from a neighboring estate, Consuela Jones, become embroiled in, and then successfully foil, a murderous scheme to defraud the government. In the process, Jack discovers that his own father was behind the terrible plot. Or was he?

When confronted with his crime, Sir Kendrick Vespa callously informs Jack that he is not Jack's father; that Jack is in fact the product of an affair between his mother, Lady Faith Vespa, and her lover. Jack then vows to find out the true identity of his father--a mission that is fraught with false leads and disappointments. Finally, with the help of Consuela and her grandmother, a fiery Italian duchess, Jack traces a nobleman who just may be his real father. Lord Kincraig, the gentleman in question, proves to be an enigma, though, obsessed with what seems to be fantastical tales of a "flying carpet" and a priceless jeweled rug that was cut into pieces and lost many centuries earlier. Jack and his faithful friends must follow "the mad rug collector" into dangerous enemy territory, face strange and terrifying adversaries, and even risk losing one another to find the truth.

With this exciting sequel to The Riddle of Alabaster Royal, the "reigning queen of period romance" (Romantic Times) Patricia Veryan outdoes even herself.