The Golden Cross

by Angela Hunt Book 2 in the The Heirs of Cahira O’Connor series.

First published 1998

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4.3(937)

Aidan O’Connor grows up among thieves and sex workers in a Dutch colony on Java until a cartographer recognises her unusual gift for drawing plants and animals. Disguised as a boy, she joins him at sea and enters a world of Company trade, scientific collecting and danger far beyond the social position into which she was born.

Opportunity gives Aidan a vocation but does not erase the violence of colonial commerce or the claims of her past. Adventure and love force her to decide whether achievement requires permanent disguise and whether talent is possession, calling or responsibility. Kathleen’s parallel research reveals another heir whose freedom depends on using knowledge without surrendering compassion.