DEÆ MATRES – a short story

1863 – SS Caliban, a British sail-and-screw freighter out of Liverpool, is on a transatlantic crossing to America, to the port of New York, carrying both passengers and cargo, most of it bolts of tightly woven cloth, dyed blue. England is officially neutral in America's Civil War, but the ship's crossing is still a dangerous one. The real danger, however, are not the marauding Confederate gun boats, or the Union man-of-war frigates patroling the cold North Atlantic. The real danger to Caliban and its crew is its mysterious cargo, strapped and tarpaulined to its weather deck, and its equally mysterious passenger, who takes her meals in her cabin, and only comes out to walk the decks at night, after the Moon has set, and most everyone on board is asleep...