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‘Conrad?’ Uncertainty as much as the fading daylight danced in her eyes, making them glow like the low polar sun on the ice. ‘Is it really you?’
‘It is.’ He raised his hand to touch her cheek, then hesitated, afraid that if he caressed her she might disappear like one of the many mirages he’d seen hovering above the Arctic sea. Returning to England and Katie had seemed like an impossible dream when he’d imagined it from the cold hold of a ship buried beneath darkness and ice.
Now, with the curve of Katie’s small chin so close to his palm, her thick eyelashes fluttering with each disbelieving blink, the grip of the nightmare began at last to ease.
He was home.
Conrad brushed her face with his fingertips and the tender warmth of her skin made him shiver for the first time in more than a year from something other than cold. Despite the shadows beneath her eyes, the faint blush spreading under the smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose could hold his gaze for hours. He shifted closer. He’d been too long without her and the comfort of her embrace.
The idea for Katie and Conrad’s story came to me a couple of years ago, when I wanted to explore the idea of two lovers separated and then reunited. It took me a while to develop the story because I couldn’t think of a good reason why two people should be apart. Then I read a book on early British exploration of both the Arctic and Africa, and Conrad’s reason for leaving Katie was born.
I chose the Arctic over more southern climes because the southern regions usually involved higher rates of fatality from tropical disease. An Arctic expedition, while no less risky, wasn’t likely to kill a man within a few days of his arrival, but there was still the possibility of things going tragically wrong. The risk of Arctic ice trapping a ship at the end of summer was very real, and a crew might easily find themselves forced to overwinter in their ship, facing possible starvation, scurvy and frostbite until the spring thaw freed them. This is what happens to Conrad, and it keeps him from returning to Katie.
Once Conrad’s profession was fixed I needed a heroine with a scientific passion equal to his. I stumbled upon Katie’s obsession as a result of my little one’s interest in dinosaurs. In many books I read about Mary Anning, the young fossil-hunter. I was intrigued by her and the early fossil finds, and began to delve deeper into the geological discoveries of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
I incorporated a great deal of what I learned about both Arctic exploration and early geology into the story, bringing in historical figures and using my research to make Katie and Conrad more real. I hope you enjoy their story as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.
The Captain’s Frozen Dream
Georgie Lee
A lifelong history buff, GEORGIE LEE hasn’t given up hope that she will one day inherit a title and a manor house. Until then she fulfils her dreams of lords, ladies and a Season in London through her stories. When not writing, she can be found reading non-fiction history or watching any film with a costume and an accent.
Please visit georgie-lee.com to learn more about Georgie and her books.
To my little one,
whose obsession with dinosaurs gave my heroine hers.
Contents
England—October 1st, 1820
‘No, let go of me.’ A woman’s strained voice carried over the rolling hills of the West Sussex countryside.
Captain Conrad Essington kicked his horse into a canter, and as he crested the rise in the road he spied a gig beside it, the horse grazing lazily on the tall grass. Up a gentle hill, just beyond the shade of a wide ash tree, a man and woman stood together. The setting sun blazed behind them, turning them into little more than silhouettes. The woman tried to walk away, but the man grabbed her by the arm.
‘Listen to me,’ he demanded.
She twisted out of his grip. ‘No, I won’t hear it.’
‘Can I be of some assistance?’ Conrad slid off the hired horse and flicked the reins over the animal’s head.
The man let go of the woman and offered a dismissive wave. ‘I assure you, we’re fine.’
Conrad continued up the hill,