Ahead of the Press Publishing

They needed a fresh start; of that neither Rudy Blake nor Rose Theodore disagreed. But where to begin? With the ink still wet on her Master’s papers, Captain R. B. Theodore could have chosen to take the Lady Rose back to sea but an undercurrent of doubt troubled her. The Civil War was over, but reconstruction in the South had not gone the way either had hoped. With a Southerner in the White House, there was every reason to believe reunification meant a return to the Old Ways. Slavery was abolished but the hatreds remained. Northern cotton Factors paid little, if anything to blacks selling cotton, while charging British textile manufacturers excessive amounts for the imported cotton. If they were going to make a difference, then their path lay not at sea, but in Liverpool. Seeing first-hand what devastating effects the high price of cotton had, they determined to form the R.B. Cotton Buyers Consortium, forming a union of buyers who would dictate price rather than succumb to greedy sellers. With wiles, warehouses and a bold plan for confiscating thousands of bales to re-sell, Rudy and Rose incur the enmity of those who wished to control the future of Southern white gold. In so doing, they suffer a grievous loss, complicated by the unexpected appearance of Brother Blake, the Negro crewman and preacher Rudy knew as a child growing up on his father’s plantation of Flowering Tree. Coming to Rudy and Rose with a plan to assist the black growers, he spins for them a long and complicated story of his exploits since leaving Rudy’s service aboard the Reprobate in 1864. Along with ‘Tarfish, another black crewmember, the pair made their way back to Charleston where Brother Blake assumed many identities, from preacher to insurrectionist, eventually worming his way into Ethan Odanagh’s fabled home of Babylon. There, under the guise of a servant, he proves himself invaluable to the former slave trader while strengthening his position among the black community. Eventually, as Charleston fell into Union hands, he completes his turnaround by using Negro soldiers to carry out his plans of retribution. When his story, which is not well-received by Rudy and Rose, comes to a conclusion, he is caught in both a lie and a deed of magnificent proportion, forcing the crew to deal with one who has been enlisted for life, but only on the adherence to lifelong loyalty. As one story ends, another begins as Rudy announces it is time for him to return to the city of his birth and confront Ethan Odanagh and his bride, Elspeth. Offering them all the money in the world, he promises Rose he will return to her with an annulment, enabling them to marry. She releases him for this journey with only one admonition: Remember, your life is precious to me. Do not throw it away. Making a promise he cannot keep, Rudy departs, leaving Rose to wonder if she will ever see him again.