Chapter One
Andrea took a sip of coffee, then hiked up her skirt as much as modesty allowed
to let some sun on her pale legs. She'd faded during winter, her olive skin now
looked ivory in contrast to her raven black hair. But the sun could restore a
warm tone to soften her high cheekbones and give proportion to her wide-set
brown eyes. She looked over the rim of her white porcelain cup to see her
husband shepherd their young daughter, who toddled aimlessly among the crush of
people milling about the waterfront.
Saturday morning on a vital spring day at Baltimore Harbor — Andrea had taken
this tonic each of the twenty-two years of her life: as an infant buckled into a
stroller, as a child dangling her feet from the pier, as a tomboy eyeing the
cadets from the nearby Space Academy. As a young single woman she toured the old
relics from the Federalist Era: monuments, ancient military forts; and their
hardware. Her favorite was a black sailing ship as old as the harbor itself: The
Constitution, a ship famous for her thick oaken hide and for fighting
unfairly. She had too many guns according to her adversaries, most of whom she
sank.
In recent years the harbor provided a new fascination ... read full excerpt from Tenebrea Trilogy: Entering Tenebrea Book One ebook
