The hardiest sailors have sea legs for storms. They walk, not exactly easily along the deck, but like spiders with sticky legs that hold fast to whatever surface they can find. They scurry. But they do so only when they are sure they will make it to the place they are aiming for. It was…

The sisters were unwrapped and unwound at the door. A brisk and hearty maid helped them out of their coats, scarves, and hats, cooing as she collected the crisp, frozen articles from them. Arms piled high, she left, trailing a scarf as she went. Another maid arrived in the first one’s place. This one was younger, softer, with little…

In Vienna, they sat in coffee shops filled with glass windows and wooden tables with marble tabletops, set with silver spoons and white linen napkins. There were ferns between tables and palms in the corners, long and leggy, their soft spikes reaching toward the patrons. Women sat in fur stoles, pearls dripping daintily from their…

As sisters, only one was beautiful even though they both looked the same. Same eyes, same color of hair, same cheekbones and coloring, same shaped mouth but rearranged just enough to make a difference. It was the youngest with slightly plumper feature – bigger eyes and a bow-shaped mouth – that stood out. It was…

The first time he set foot on the new continent, he felt unmoored. Granted, he’d spent the last four months aboard ship and felt somewhat ill-prepared for the battle of land and sea in his body. The ship’s carpenter had warned him that he’d walk askew for a few days, head and shoulders against the…

A sailor can spot a lander in an instant. Their gait. Their belt. Their pants. All of them giveaways. A too-clean shirt. And there, in the eye, a flash of insecurity, of nervousness, a worry of being found out. These two sailors were smaller than the others. One just a boy really. The other, well,…