About this story
My uncle has secured you a writership with the East India Company, and they may send you out within a fortnight. You step into this one-chapter preview with Joshua Tufton at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. The door began to open on the family surprise Joshua had arranged for the next chapter. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
How it opens
Six months after your coast-guard father died, you found your mother crying over the answer to her appeal for your future.
Mrs MarryatMy uncle has secured you a writership with the East India Company, and they may send you out within a fortnight.
At sixteen, you were too old to enter the navy as a midshipman and your mother's pension could not support three children indefinitely.
Charlie MarryatIndia is far, Mother, but a paid place is better than remaining here while you spend what the girls need.
Mrs MarryatI imagine fever, wild animals, violence, or your return decades later as an irritable stranger.
Mrs MarryatI am grateful it is a civilian appointment; I could not willingly send you into a regiment after losing your father.