During the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, two women’s lives collide under sinister circumstances. Jennifer Winterfield, a defiant young rebel, and Kitamakura, a mysterious warrior from Japan, both fall prey to a secret fraternity of ex-soldiers from England’s elite—men sworn to protect the Empire while indulging their own excesses. Joined by Jennifer’s physician uncle and a quick-witted street urchin named Pickles, they form the seeds of a criminal syndicate destined to strike fear into the hearts of the colonialists and industrial magnates who once sought to destroy them. In this first volume, alliances are forged, vengeance is set in motion, and the balance of power begins to shift.
