Chapter ONE - Weebly

learning that she had been widowed, he immediately
began to wonder if he might win back his first and only
love.
At first, he refrained from contacting her, knowing
that there was no point so long as he remained a
pauper, a wretched convict without prospects. But
once he had established himself as a thieftaker, he
sought her out. The first several times he showed up at
her door, Elli sent him away. He had concealed from
her the fact that he was a conjurer and had humiliated
her by being part of the Ruby Blade mutiny. She
wanted nothing to do with him.
But one day, nearly a year after his return to Boston,
he encountered Elli and her children in Faneuil Hall. It
was the first warm day of spring, and Ethan was
enjoying the sights, smells, and flavors of the market.
His imprisonment felt like a distant memory. He greeted
Elli jovially, but she remained distant and cold.
The children, however, eyed him with unconcealed
fascination. They had no man in their lives save their
aging grandfather; as far as they knew, neither did their
mother. And yet, here was this strange man who spoke