The The Bequest Chronicles: Book 1 by Robert M. Fitzpatrick
The adventure is set in South Western France in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo. It begins in the small town of La Garenne home to the Ducs of Garenne and their ancestors for more than six hundred years. La Garenne was a place where nothing much ever happened. Even the French Revolution had passed by the town. That is until the suspicious death of a national hero, a man from the town known to all and the subsequent death of his mentor the Duc de Garenne. There was also the unexplained disappearance of a famous hunting dog, Hugo Hound once owned by both of these men.
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Then the nation was gripped by the news that a patrol of gendarmes from La Garenne had “vanished off the face of the earth” at least according to their local commandant. A young officer was dispatched from Paris to investigate and discovered that all these events had a common link, the dog, Hugo Hound. To his bewilderment, his orders are changed by the Head of Gendarmerie in Paris. He must now also find Hugo Hound. He finds himself protecting not only Hugo but Hugo’s companions including talking bears and lions!
He also meets once again Catherine, whom he had helped rescue from the chaotic aftermath of Waterloo. She and her cousin are far more involved with his task than he could ever have imagined. On a voyage across France to the safety of the Pyrenees, once home to these special beings, he and his charges are pursued by evil in the form of a Werewolf, once the leader of the ‘lost patrol’ and the renegade son of the late Duc de Garenne, brother to Catherine.
