Description

Thirty-four. Five years in Bengal, promoted to Major for civil works service. Lean, sunburned, ink-stained fingers. Practical, enthusiastic about his work in the way that bores most people at parties. Happier on a construction site than in a ballroom but duty requires both.

Background

Renwick’s father was Order of St. Aelfric. Renwick grew up with the knowledge. He’s not an active operative; he’s an engineer who went to India to build things. But he carries a letter from Harcourt and knows to watch for the unusual. He is Harcourt’s only asset in Calcutta.

Overseeing an embankment reinforcement upstream of Baranagar: a cofferdam, earthworks, engineering equipment, a crew of Indian labourers and a handful of British sappers. The project has been running for eight months. He knows every current, depth, and channel in that stretch of the Hooghly.

What He’s Seen

His construction site is within earshot of the temple ghat. Workers refuse to stay after dark on certain nights. He’s heard chanting that doesn’t sound like normal worship, a harmonic quality that made his teeth ache. He’s seen lights in the temple when it should be closed. He’s watched fishermen avoid the stretch of river near Baranagar. He filed one report to Blackwood, who filed it in a drawer.

He’s been sitting on this for months, cataloguing observations the way an engineer catalogues anything: methodically, precisely, waiting for someone who’d know what to do with the data.

Motivations

Once he understands what the chanting is, what the river is carrying, and what Kali Puja night will bring, his mind goes straight to engineering solutions. “If the problem is acoustic transmission through the water channel, then we need to break the channel. I have a cofferdam half-built, sixty barrels of powder in the magazine, and sappers who know how to use them. Tell me when.”

Connections

• Lord Percival Harcourt — Harcourt’s only Calcutta asset
• James Hatcherly — Subordinate, demolitions specialist
• Charles Ashworth — Administrative authority over his construction site

In Play

Chapter 4, Session 8 (8 October 1814) — sought, not yet found. Meg handed Freddy a letter of introduction written by Lord Harcourt before the party left England and held at the compound against their arrival. The letter commends the party to Renwick’s confidence without reservation, alludes to his father and the value of duty, and refers to strange phenomena observed in the course of river engineering work that resist ordinary explanation — suggesting the bearers are people who would know where such observations belong.

Freddy has tasked Pratap Singh with locating him. No contact yet made.

Chapter 4, Session 9 (9 October 1814) — located, not met. Pratap Singh, on Freddy’s commission, walked into the Engineers Park at Fort William on his rank and read the records. Renwick is stationed eight miles north of Calcutta at Baranagar, supervising an embankment project on the Hooghly. He is not yet posted to the Gurkha fight, and will almost certainly be reassigned the moment the works are finished. See Renwick Located at Baranagar.

The party registered that Renwick’s post and the Mandir Mahakali temple stand in the same village. Freddy subsequently asked Marcus Hale how a Fort William posting might be influenced. Harcourt’s letter of introduction is still undelivered.

Appearances

Relationships

• Located at Calcutta 1814 — Resident in Calcutta
• Serves Lord Percival Harcourt — Harcourt's only contact in Calcutta. Order connection through his late father.
• Commands James Hatcherly — Hatcherly's superior officer. Can authorise work at the construction site.