Seriously do not read this post without reading The Rhino Keeper.
You will be extremely mad at yourself.
Don't do it!
Warning!!
MAJOR SPOILER!
LAST CHANCE --- TURN AROUND NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

SPOILER: Lionel/Lonnie
Ah my big, beautiful plot twist.
I knew from the very beginning that I was going to have a gender-bending, cross-dressing, woman in disguise on Douwe's ship.
You see, my master's thesis and my undergraduate thesis both had 18th century women who abandoned life in skirts and joined the crew of a pirate ship, Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

That and the amazing story of Jeanne Baret, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, inspired me. Jeanne collected plant specimens on her voyages, dressed "as a man" in pants and preteneded to be a stranger to her long-time lover and companion, a botanist, on board a French navy ship.
I love this tidbit: she sailed with the French in disguise and when they landed in Tahiti, the natives were IMMEDIATELY LIKE: Oh hey lady. And the rest of the ship had no clue. LOL.
Even better.... the world expert on Clara the rhino wrote the biography about Jeanne. Glynis Ridley, my friend and historian, and early reader of The Rhino Keeper, was delighted to know that Lionel was Lonnie, and was inspried by Jeanne Baret.

So let's talk about my fictional character.
Lonnie did what a lot of women dreamed of doing -- escaping her by-the-book life and making some real money for herself. Imagine the absolute danger that existed on a ship. People got injured, which is what happened to Lonnie, and their sex was discovered.
Lucky for Lonnie, Dr. Wilhelm existed aboard the Knappenhof. He served as a bridge between Kang (the rule follower) and Lonnie. If it weren't for him, and for Douwe sticking his neck out of her, Lonnie would have been jailed or executed in South Africa.
It was truly a turning point for Douwe when Lonnie WAS discovered by Peregrine Snell. When Snell attacked her, Lonnie hurt him. Badly. That bloody nose was not Kang's doing -- it was Lonnie's. See, life aboard a ship makes you tough. She absolutely walloped him, before he injured her or took any liberties.
It was the shock, you see, that kept Lonnie curled in a ball in Wilhelm's cabin. She was a hair's breadth away from discovery by a bad, bad dude. She held her own. Douwe's rage, something he held inside util that moment, fueled by fear and his own realization that he, too, was nearly discovered in breaking serious rules a the captain by keeping Lonnie's secret, and he panicked.
The editor of the book asked me if that really would have happened - if the captain of a ship would have executed a sailor without a trial.
Maritime laws are strict aboard vessels, but Snell was not executed publicly. Captains hold power. And Snell was not liked. Secrecy among the crew would have been high, and if no one said anything about the sudden disappearance of their least-favorite crew member...well. Who would know?
Lonnie survived, found her place, and told Douwe she was not coming with him. She wanted to pursue her own passions and gather specimens for the VOC, with Dr. Wilhelm as her protection. That moment, when she said that she was forging her own path, was the MOMENT Douwe realized he loved her. The woman who had the least amount of longing for the rhino keeper is the one he wanted.
Lonnie also loved Zubin, which was the glue holding this found family together. When Zubin got sick, something changed within Lonnie, and she, too, realized that her love for Clara and Zubin and Douwe extended beyond a brief murmur of her life.
She wanted it to be permanent. But when Zubin got sick, she realized she was not legally bound to the men, and that if they wanted to go to the southern shores to heal Zubin's fevers, they could do it without her. She chose, at first, a life apart, and that is what continued until Douwe chose her, after Clara's passing, to be his wife.
Lonnie was born of love and brawn. Of individualism and family. Of sailor's pants and corsets and honey-curls, shorn close to her scalp.
I loved writing Lonnie, and hoped you loved her story.
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