Not Yet Drown'd — Peg Kingman

A mysterious parcel propels a young Scottish widow on a perilous quest to the far side of the world.

Catherine MacDonald is astonished to receive from her twin brother--who had reportedly drowned a year earlier, in the monsoon floods of 1821--a kashmiri shawl, a caddy of unusual tea, and a sheaf of traditional bagpipe music in his handwriting. When had he sent it? And why had he retitled a certain tune "Not Yet Drown'd"?

Irresistibly, Catherine is drawn to India to search for answers. With her stepdaughter and their two maids--one an enigmatic Hindu, the other a runaway American slave--she follows an obscure trail of tea, opium, and bagpipe music. In the course of their journey they meet botanists, smugglers, engineers, soldiers, and artists--as well as love and betrayal. And as they copy, translate, and finally understand certain Scottish and Indian paintings and music, they discover unsuspected truths about the man they are seeking.