Should Monarchs Stumble (Bonnie Isles #3)

Prologue

Captains log ~~ Sloop Remini. March 1st, 1637. Alexandria, Egypt.

Sunrise.

I was awakened early this morning, and arrived on deck to see the city shadowed in the pre-dawn light. The sky is clear and cool now, before the day's heat can begin.

This city is old--so old I can hardly fathom, though I have walked its streets and glimpsed its mysteries. Sometimes I think I can feel the power of this place in the very air.

Yesterday we met a man in the Rhakotis Market Square. He looked at me and touched my sleeve, then spoke in his native tongue, pointing northward. I asked Kaphiri, our guide and translator, what he said. Kaphiri laughed and said it was just a crazy man. When I pressed him for the translation, Kaphiri told me: 'This crazy man. He says a storm is brewing in the north. He says you should seek a safe harbor.' At the time, I looked to the north and the sky was clear--crystal blue without a cloud in sight. I agreed with Kaphiri that the man was indeed crazy.

But now, I wonder...could he have meant "seek Fair Haven?"

Sebastian felt the boat rock gently, and looked up to see his wife poised in the rising sunlight, her hand resting on the mast as she looked at him with curiosity.

"You're up early," Mari said.

"I couldn't sleep," he admitted.

She came to him and kissed his forehead before sitting beside him on the deck. "What do you have to write about so early in the day?"

"Yesterday, actually."

Mari nodded. "The man in the market."

"You caught it, too?"

"The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. What do you think he meant?"

"I don't know, but I can feel it in my bones, Mari. There's a storm brewing in the north."