This is an I-Heart podcast.

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Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

A speck appeared on the horizon.

It hovered there, tantalizingly, tauntingly, as a young, emaciated woman

stumbled out onto the frigid shoreline, staring at it. Was the speck a figment of her desperate

imagination? Perhaps a trick of the pale light, or just another cruel test from her harsh

island purgatory. Since being marooned on an expedition to the, quote, new world in 1542,

Marguerite de la Ruebeville had lost count of all the dots and flecks and specks that she had prayed would grow into the familiar shape of ships on the horizon.

And yet, as she squinted intently, this speck grew. Details emerged.

It was a ship. It had to be a ship. emerged. It was a ship.

It had to be a ship.

But this instantly brought up more tricky questions.

What were the vessel's origins?

Had the same vengeful captain who had condemned Marguerite to her tragic fate, finally decided to return to

rescue her? Or was it merely an unknowing craft? Of the rare few sailboats that had actually

appeared in the distance, none had ventured close enough to instill any true hope of rescue

before they had blended back into the dark sea and gray sky, disappearing forever. And why would

they come close? Marguerite's small island had little to offer besides hardship and peril,

and yet this boat was as near as any she had seen in the months since she'd been stranded.

Marguerite was now facing a very tough decision.

...