The Shipwright's Mark

Thomas Collins spent his whole life as a dockworker at Collins Shipyards, known to everyone as Thomas Reed. Now he is confirmed as the lawful son of Edmund Collins, heir to the shipyard that once looked past him, and to a name that comes with more grief than triumph. Thomas's first act as owner is not one of stewardship but of settling an old score, and it costs him more than he expects.

Rebecca Hayes, the shipyard nurse who loved Thomas before he had a title to offer her, refuses to shield him from the consequences of his own choices. Her love holds firm, but it will not bend to protect a man determined to mistake power for justice. As the workers watch to see what kind of master he will become, an old debt surfaces: Henry Blackwood, the shipyard's investor, freed from Sir Malcolm Thorne's shadow, calls in a mortgage tied to Edmund Collins's branch of the estate, one that could strip Thomas of everything he has just claimed.

To save Collins Shipyards, Thomas must set aside the man who wants repayment for a stolen childhood and become the man his father quietly modeled: a steward rather than an owner. With Amos Whitcombe's steady wisdom, Clara's hard-won trust, and Rebecca's unwavering honesty beside him, Thomas begins to understand that inheritance was never the point. What he builds with it is.

Will Thomas learn to lead with an open hand, or will pride cost him the very thing he fought to reclaim? Step into The Shipwright's Mark to find out.

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