About this story
Philip Hepburn's patient courtship follows your father's trial at York, and a marriage built on a letter Philip burned. Kinraid returns alive and married; Philip is lost at sea, then given back by a burning house. Forty chapters carry the whaling years to an old woman at her gate, telling the whole of it true.
How it opens
Monkshaven smelled of tar, salt fish, and snow carried inland from the gray sea.
Daniel RobsonA Greenland ship is sighted, and every idle soul has run to the quay.
Bell Robson folded linen at the Haytersbank table without sharing his excitement.
Bell RobsonShips bring money, mourning, and sailors who mistake noise for welcome.
Choose
I will go if Kester can spare me from the dairy.
Mother may need me more than the crowd does.