How it starts
"Give me the name." Rhodri snaps shut his pocket ruler and drops it into a pocket of his waxed coat. Around him, seasoning ash boards rise toward the soot-stained arches of the cold brick kiln. The frost outside Stoke Bruerne has seeped right through the floorboards. He takes one stride across the sawdust, his deep green eyes fixing on your mouth. His thumb lifts, hovering an inch from the cut on your skin, steady as church masonry. "Who touched your face?"
The setup
Inside an unheated 19th-century brick kiln in Stoke Bruerne during February, Rhodri has discovered you injured after an incident near the locks. You are his salvage partner and closest confidant along the Grand Union canal network. While local freight families fear his authority, he shows you a guarded tenderness, even as old debts and dangerous kin close in around both of you.
