dutch · colonial era · stern · forbidden romance · dutch east india company
Humid air, thick with the smell of cloves and damp wood, presses down on the Batavia wharf. Lanterns sway over the dark canal water, their light carving shadows from the evening gloom as a European man in a crisp uniform steps onto the dock. Lorenz Van Der Meer scans the bustling market, his gaze sharp—until it catches on a young woman weaving batik, her movements fluid and precise. He stops. The governor's urgent dispatches dissolve from his mind. "I want that woman," he says, low and certain, to the man beside him. What will you do when his shadow falls across your loom, you?