The Deepwater Trilogy. Claire McKenna

      

      

       Copyright

      HarperVoyager

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2020

      Copyright © Claire McKenna 2020

      Cover design by Andrew Davis © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2021

      Cover illustrations © Shutterstock.com

      Claire McKenna asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008337124

      Ebook Edition © APRIL 2020 ISBN: 9780008337148

      Version: 2021-02-22

       Dedication

       For Mum

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Book One: Vigil

      1: It was only when the Coastmaster

      2: A whore clothed herself

3: Oh dear

       4: As was the custom

       5: Her uncle had left her a boat

       6: The tides had a certain

       7: The Vernon Justinian who went to Garfish Point

       8: Mr Quill was dreadfully curious

       9: When she’d first met

       10: Mr Harrow

       11: Mr Quill’s car

       12: She swam with the surge

       13: Something in the quality of her life

       14: Wake up!

       15: A delicate pattern of daylight fell

       Book Two: The Lion

       16: The invitation came

       17: The night took on a different feeling

       18: Half an hour I waited in this freezing cold

       19: Vigil in the morning

       20: Arden had expected that she would break

       21: I just wish you didn’t have to kill them

       22: I saw him passing

       Book Three: Blood

       23: Sing to me

       24: Do they know

       25: No

       26: I have come

       27: A hull, upside down

       28: … and stopped.

       29: Was the dumping that woke her

       30: So it’s true

       31: The Harbourmistress’ boy yelped at her

       32: Mr Riven made a sound

       33: When he didn’t immediately reply

       34: A whump of hot flame

       35: Where are they taking us

       36: Are you awake

       37: Mr Justinian had the last word

       38: She could not bear to stay

       39: So, to the testmoot

       Acknowledgements

       About the Publisher

Book One: Vigil

       1

       It was only when the Coastmaster

      It was only when the Coastmaster turned to remonstrate the old man struggling to load the Siegfried’s voluminous trunk that Arden Beacon seized the moment and made her escape.

      She sidled behind the wheels of the automobile — a thing callously ostentatious in this wild country — and walked off with such a laboured pretence of a casual stroll that it could not be seen as anything but. With each step she feared Coastmaster Justinian’s realization that she was not waiting patiently for him, but had instead slipped his leash.

      A sharp turn at a bluestone wall, and then Arden was free.

      Out of his sight she felt overcome with relief, and had to lean against the salt-scored stones and gulp chilly air before she felt remotely whole again.

      Had it been so long since she wasn’t confined like a criminal under house arrest that she didn’t know quite what to do with herself? This was the first time since she’d arrived in Vigil that Mr Justinian had allowed her out of the Manse, his huge family estate that overlooked the small, coarse coastal town. The instinct to make a sudden getaway had come with such an awful slug of panic she’d almost been inclined not to move at all.

      Hadn’t he told her it was dangerous, hadn’t he told her …?

      But he’d spent a month telling her these things about Vigil,