Torvey Family

"Perdita?" you ask. "Isn't she..."

"Perdita Torvey was Captain Torvey's daughter. She was seventeen when she set sail with her father and mother on the expedition. So she is my great-great-great aunt, I suppose. Here." Claudia pulls a photo of an old portrait out of her backpack. "That is Perdita."

You scrutinize the portrait. "If none of your family survived this expedition, then how . . . ?"

Claudia nods. "Perdita had a brother," she tells you. "Marcellus was nine years old in 1833. He was a sickly child and was sent to stay with relatives. Marcellus is my great-great-grandfather.

"It was very hard on him, to lose his entire family," Claudia goes on. "Harder still, perhaps, that they vanished. And then of course there were the rumors."

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