Lady Edith and the Registry Office (The Rogue’s Alliance #2)

Prologue

D ecember 1811, Thorsminde , Denmark

Lt. Nathaniel Harbury took several deep, shuddering breaths as he walked along the sandy shore and skirted the bodies washed up along the coast. The corpses were water-logged, the faces of the men pale and bloated, their skin white, wrinkled, and thickened. Several of the dead crew members before him displayed severe abrasions and injuries from being battered against the shoreline.

There were bodies as far as the eye could see beside the dunes. After an hour of searching the beach, he could find neither of his friends, Lt. Napier nor Lt. Brannel.

A fortnight earlier, while anchored near the tiny island of Vinga, Sweden, Nathaniel received an urgent communication transferring him from the HMS St. George to the HMS Cressy . Further information on his mission would be provided once he was established on the Vengeur class ship.

When Nathaniel received a packet in his quarters a day later, he decoded the message to discover there was a traitor on the Cressy- a spy for Napoleon. He had been tasked with finding evidence against the suspect as he had gone to the naval college in Plymouth with the man: Lt. Cooper, son of the Marquess of Norwich.

Within a week, on 16 December, eight ships, along with 150 merchant vessels, left Vinga near Gothenburg, Sweden. It was blowing a gale, and the Cressy and HMS Defence were ordered to stay near the St. George and HMS Hero . The St. George lost her rudder, and Cressy supplied her with a temporary one made of cable, guaranteeing the St. George could not easily be brought into stays as she came out into the North Sea.

The captain of the Cressy made the decision to set sail and turn away from the lee shore in an attempt to save the vessel, leaving the St. George and the vice admiral aboard to their fate. On the morning of December 24 th , the St. George and Defence became stranded on the coast of Ringkoobing in Jutland.

Local accounts the following afternoon stated the St. George ’s cabin and stern could be seen from the shoreline. Several men standing on the ship attempted to come ashore on a piece of the mast but were washed off by high waves driven by the wind, while others perished when they tried to save themselves on a raft.

By a trick of fate, Nathaniel had escaped the wreck of his former ship. A handful of survivors made it ashore, none of them officers.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered raggedly as he fell to his knees in the wet sand. “I should have been with you. Forgive me.”