The Captain's Bargain

Nassau in the heat is a town that collects debts. It collects them in the morning on the wharf, in front of witnesses, from men who have already paid. Salt-scoured hemp bites into Nathaniel Hawke's palms as he hauls the last crate of salt cod across the gangplank. The wood groans under his boots. Somewhere a gull screams, thin and hungry, a sound that goes through the morning heat like a knife through soft fruit. *That's the lot, Hawke. And I'll thank you to remember next time you want credit, I'm not your bloody bank.* *You got your money. Every penny of it.* *Every penny late.* The Nereid sits low in the water with a hold full of salt cod, barrel staves and a dozen casks of rum bound for Savannah. If the wind holds he will be past the Abacos by midnight and out of these islands for good, which has been the plan for longer than he cares to count. Then a man comes down the wharf with a satchel and hands that will not stay steady, grey-green eyes like the sea before a storm, and asks for passage to the cays. *I'm not taking passengers.* *I can pay.* Two hundred guineas now. Another hundred at the far end. Jace Carrington is lying about why he wants to go. Nathaniel takes the money anyway, which is the second-worst decision he makes this year and by some distance the best thing that has ever happened to him. What follows: a brass compass that should not point where it points, a botanist's case with the wrong contents, a nightmare that repeats, a rescue at the cays, a rat, a knife, a wound, a rose, and a betrayal laid bare in front of the entire crew. One deck. Two liars. A ship worth more than either of them. *No more ghosts. I promise.* A historical seafaring romance between two men who each boarded this voyage running a separate deception, and neither of whom accounted for the possibility of being believed.