The Merchant’s Tale

P.K. Adams and C.P. Lesley

 

Karl Scharping, a twenty-eight-year-old merchant from Danzig, has one thing on his mind—the beautiful bride awaiting him in Moscow. A careless leap from his horse derails his plans, confining him to a monastery near the White Sea. Hobbling to the window on crutches, Karl looks out on a vast expanse of water glistening in the dawn light and gasps at the sight of an English merchantman at anchor in the bay. He has no idea how much trouble that ship carries in its wake.

 

When Richard Chancellor departs his native London to serve the interests of his Tudor king by locating a new passage to the spice-rich Orient, he does not expect to wind up in Muscovy—ruled by Tsar Ivan IV, known as “the Terrible,” and his Romanov in-laws. The Russians welcome Chancellor and his sailors to the Kremlin, although the foreigners’ unfamiliar language poses problems and accidents delay their journey south. Then they reach Moscow, and their problems really begin.

 

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P.K. Adams  is the author of a duology featuring Hildegard of Bingen, The Greenest Branch and The Column of Burning Spices, and of the Jagiellon Mysteries. Find out more about her and her books at https://pkadams-author.com.

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C.P. Lesley, a founding member of Five Directions Press, is the author of The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel and three series: Legends of the Five Directions, Songs of Steppe & Forest, and the Tarkei Chronicles. Find her books on the historical and sf & fantasy pages here and via her own site (https://www.cplesley.com).