Cirrus@Austlit

'Winter, 1812. Napoleon is marching through northern Brugel, on his way to Moscow.

'Most sensible people have fled south. Some folks have to stay behind in the villages and look after the animals This is where we find our heroine, young Lara, who yearns for her one true love to sweep her off her feet.

'Lara undertakes a daring endeavour. She steals one hundred silver schlipps from her master to buy a magical faerie that will glow when her one true love is near. In order to pay back the debt, she turns her master's empty house into a gambling den.

'It's all going so fabulously well, until her master's youngest son, Cezar, turns up.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.