Through a tangle of cobblestone alleys we slipped, past hawkers and fishwives, dandies and errand boys, burly men who carried bales and boxes and chivied ponies and trundled barrels. We emerged at the mouth of the Thames, among so many hulking males that for a moment I broke stride. Yet the Captain hustled me onward with a confident swagger, sword jouncing at her shapely hip. Once a grimy workman stepped into her path, and she unloaded such a deep-voiced string of oaths at the man that my ears burned. Yet I could not help but notice that though the face reddened in sudden anger, he jumped back at the sight of my formidable mistress.
As we walked on I found myself smiling faintly. That male fool thought he had been bested by another hairy beast…but what if he could have known it was a woma
