Excerpt…

England, summer, 1326

THE DAWN BROKE on clouds gathering over a steep coast, colored sullen orange to deep red. They were reflected against the oily, steadily increasing swell beneath the Faucon’s hull. “Yes,” the captain said, “let’s get docked now.”

She brought the ship in close enough to what looked like an uninterrupted shoal that her passengers held their collective breath, and then a ray of sun broke through the clouds to illuminate a narrow channel. The Faucon threaded it with easy confidence.

The heavy wooden double doors of the keep opened at their approach, and the captain took two strides and embraced the man standing in the opening. He was half a head shorter than she was and an arm’s length broader but she nearly raised him off his feet. He let out a booming laugh and pulled her down into a loud, smacking kiss. Jaufre nudged Johanna and they looked on, grinning, as Alaric looked at first startled, then revolted, and finally resigned.

Dana sez–

What’s that you say? A woman pirate captain? Why, yes, since you asked (and if you’ve read Dead in the Water you’re already way ahead of me). Here’s the Wikipedia entry, so you know I’m not making this up. (Really, I never have to make anything up and a good thing that is, too.)

Way back when I thought Johanna was going to be traveling the first leg of her journey by sea (yep, Uncle Cheng was originally a ship’s captain), I was going to introduce the gang to a modern day (to them) Tchiao Kuo-fu-ja, by way of a pirate attack.

Instead, Johanna travels all the way by land until they encounter the English Channel, and Alaric’s sister is based on Jeanne de Clisson.

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