Martha Kite Among the Congregation in Exile — D.W. Cropper

Martha Kite never imagined she'd become an agent of the crown, let alone governess to a preternaturally gifted child. Yet the child must be stolen away from the Congregation in Exile, or nothing good will come of it. The faithful are chanting and defacing every surface with profane signs and symbols. Father Simon Pitch is making plans for the resurrection of the Great and Terrible Lord. If the gifted child will not open the portal then her twin sister will answer for it.

A former street waif and pickpocket turned actress, Martha has been pressed into the service of her government. Now she must use all of her theatrical talent and low guile to convince a megalomaniac that he may count her among his army of fanatics. She's been told that she has three compatriots embedded among the congregation, but two of them have already been hanged, and the third is unknown to her. She is determined to save both children, desperately hoping to be reunited with her own twin sister in the bargain. A cruel trick of nature and a twist of fate has separated the Kite sisters. Now Maggie has become embroiled in the Pitch affair, although Martha doesn't know how.

Her government has supplied Martha with two primers, a large caliber handgun and little else. She's bound for an island in the North Sea they call the Devil's Thumb with no promise of a return voyage. Lunatics and zealots await, the whole deranged lot armed with knives, hatchets and guns. And that's to say nothing of the creatures, harbingers to the coming of the Great Lord, that the gifted child has already unleashed.

Martha is certain that it will all end in blood-rain and hellfire. She only wonders how long she'll be able to maintain the subterfuge . . . or if she has enough bullets.