“Even if God forsakes you, I will find you.”
Amsterdam, 1628.
Cornelia Noorstrandt is a fine lady and a beautiful one, traveling alone on an eight-month voyage to the other side of the world, on a tiny and overcrowded ship at a time when most navigation was done by dead reckoning – guesswork.
In any other circumstance, a man like Michiel van Texel would never have met a courtly lady like her. He was just a soldier, a sergeant in the Dutch East India company’s army, on his way to the Indies to fight the Mataram. Such a woman was far above the likes of him.
Their destinies intertwine near the Great Southland. When their ship, the Utrecht, founders far from home, surviving the reefs of the Houtman Rocks is the least of their worries.
As the noble gentlemen around her reveal themselves for what they really are, Cornelia’s only hope is a mercenary in a torn coat who shows her that a man is more than just manners and money.
He makes her one promise: “Even if God forsakes you, I will find you.”