Other Writing

CHAPTER ONE

Mazagaon Port, Bombay, December 1850

Seth Mayhew wouldn’t call it a curse.

But a man on his 13th sail couldn’t help but wonder.

Damned if he hadn’t lived this before. From where he stood on the deck of the HMS Isabella, Bombay might have been Brazil. The same briny stink of the harbor. The stray dogs nosing the pier. The carts, the cargo, the cries of the dockmen—all agitated and out of sorts like the arrival of a fifteen-hundred-ton steamship somehow took ’em by surprise.

It was just...

CHAPTER ONE

London, March 1850

“For God’s sake, man. Make way.”

The impatient command came from close behind, startling in its proximity. Will Repton clenched his teeth against a reply and edged to the right of the pavement, his limping gait either too slow or too unsightly for the haughty Londoners passing him.

Ignoring their frowns, he tucked his chin against the cold wind coursing down Oxford Street and trudged on. At the end of the block, he slowed. There was always a body rounding the...