Held captive in the aftermath of a devastating attack and facing being sold as slaves, two strangers comfort each other, and as affinity grows, they conspire to overpower their guards and regain freedom.
Jarvis is the son of a mariner and Gillian is...
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The story is set in the Caribbean in 1718, during the height of the final round of the Golden Age of Piracy. The central portion of the chart above, in the gulf between Florida and the Bahamas, is where it begins.
I have chosen to write it in a facsimile of the language spoken during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. English at that time consisted of only forty thousand words, and some of their spellings and meanings differ from our current ones. Contractions were rarely used at that time except among the vulgar, so my dialogues may seem stiff, though not as stiff as Shakespeare's a century earlier. My chosen style differs from that of Jane Austen a century after my story is set, and I hope mine is seen as less awkward.
In 2009, the one-millionth word was added to the English language, so I have restricted myself to using only four per cent of the words available. Culling the other ninety-six per cent is a labour of love, so please point out any usages you find to be non-historic.
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