In the spring of 1788, Renn Arelia Sheridan stares up at a portrait of the First Duchess of Chippenham, and the painting clearly shows an emerald brooch on her gown. Renn Arelia's hand slips into her pocket fingering the brooch her deceased mother gave her. Her nape prickles with caution. This piece is what they sought when they ransacked her parent's manor and forced her to London, betrothing her to marry a French Marques. The proverbial straw, the significance of her mother's locket, embroils Renn Arelia. She escapes the ancestral estate, hoping the heirloom is a blessing and not a curse. Her quest is a teaching position at an orphanage in Gravesend. Spiraling from one disaster to the next, she deceitfully gains passage aboard a ship and tumbles into the circle of a devil captain, forever changing the course of her life. She has no idea the locket will define her as though it is a certificate of birth.