Chapter 36
I arrived at the shipyard almost dancing in anticipation. The boat I’d purchased on such short notice was ready.
She’d been custom-made by a well-known boat-builder for some rich man’s spoiled son shortly before the stock market crashed. Somehow she’d wound up in Manaus, used, abused and eventually abandoned. Once sleek and elegant, her thirty-four feet of mahogany, teak, and brass had seen better days: she was battered and tarnished, her hull overgrown with barnacles, and she stank of rotted fish.
I’d wanted her looking as beautiful as possible—she was part of my dowry, after all—and the owner of the shipyard had seen my every wish fulfilled.
I stood on the dock and admired her and most especially her new name. I had left orders for it to be stenciled on her bow after she’d
