Ensign Knightley, and Other Stories
1901
A British officer returns to the garrison at Tangier after two years in Moorish slavery, but the enemies within the walls may prove more dangerous than any without. Ensign Knightley walks back into a welcome poisoned by suspicion: his fellow officers whisper that his long captivity must have broken him, that he may have betrayed his honor to survive. The real wound, though, cuts deeper. Captain Scrope and Knightley share a dark history, a duel fought over Knightley's wife, left behind when he was taken. Now all three must coexist in the close, tense world of the Main-Guard, where every glance carries weight and the Moorish siege outside mirrors the siege of old resentments within. Mason weaves a tale where courage is tested not in battle alone but in the slow torture of wounded pride and uncertain loyalties. The colonial garrison becomes a pressure cooker of masculine honor, where reputation is everything and a man's past can condemn him more surely than any enemy sword. For readers who crave adventure with psychological teeth, who relish the dangerous politics of closed societies where a single look can spark violence.
