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    Fleeting Hope
    Fleeting Hope
    Fleeting Hope
    Ebook59 pages50 minutes

    Fleeting Hope

    By Melissa Bell

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    About this ebook

    An Historically Australian Romance Novella

     

    A young woman who is pushed into marriage with a man that she doesn't know finds herself on one of the ships that sailed amongst the First Fleet crossing the ocean to a promised land.

    When she arrives, she quickly discovers that life in Australia is nothing like what she'd imagined. The land was harsh and unforgiving, very much like the man she'd married.

    Joshua Blake was tried and convicted for stealing a fur coat and a loaf of bread. He was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. He and hundreds of other convicts were later boarded onto a ship and transported to one the New England Colonies. Grateful to survive the harsh journey, he was sold to man as a slave in hopes of one day earning back his freedom.

    Can the wife of an abuser save the abused?

    * * *

    The First Fleet initially landed at Botany Bay on the east coast of New South Wales on 18 January 1788. This location was chosen as recommended by Captain James Cook and his botanist Sir Joseph Banks when they first sailed up the coast of Australia eighteen years earlier. 

    The First Fleet quickly moved from Botany Bay, as Governor Arthur Phillip noted immediately that the conditions there were not suitable for settlement. The fleet then arrived at Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. This is the location that the city of Sydney stands today.

    This Historical Romance is Fiction based loosely on timelines. No actual persons or events took place.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMelissa Bell & Jordin Thiele Inc.
    Release dateOct 28, 2018
    ISBN9781386117742

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      Book preview

      Fleeting Hope - Melissa Bell

      PROLOGUE

      Mary Elizabeth Sinclair, kept her head bowed as she waited for her mother to intervene with what her step-father was proposing. David Franklyn, the head of the New England Bank, had already arranged everything, and although he portrayed himself to the townspeople as an honorable man, Mary Elizabeth was not fooled. For she had found him in a compromising position with one of the chambermaids, and now his main priority was to have Mary removed from what he now claimed as his house.

      Her own father had passed away when Mary was only half-way through her seventh year. Sadly, her mother was one of the besotted fools who believed everything that came out of David Franklyn’s lying mouth - Which is how the man became her step-father almost overnight.

      I think it is for the best. I feel I have found an ideal suitor, and it is high time that Mary started her own family, David Franklyn announced in a stern tone that forbade refuting.

      I don’t know sweetheart, Elizabeth Franklyn, Mary’s mother, spoke softly, She is still only seventeen.

      You can’t keep her a child forever Elizabeth. This discussion is over. The arrangements have already been made. We’ll be meeting the young man tomorrow morning.

      Mary’s heart raced as she left the room knowing that nothing would change her step-father’s mind and that it would only serve to enrage him if another word were to be offered in argument over his decision.

      Climbing the stairs with heavy feet, Mary Elizabeth pondered on the idea of running away. Only, she had no money and nowhere to go. Finally, she conceded that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be away from the manipulations of her step-father after all. Regardless, she still felt like a broodmare being sold off to the highest bidder. On entering her bedchamber, she rang the service bell and waited for the chambermaid to come and assist her with preparing for bed. She sat in front of the mirror brushing her hair until it shone before putting it into a braid then climbing into bed.

      The following morning came way too quickly for Mary’s liking. The floor-to-ceiling curtains were thrown open, and Isabella served Mary Elizabeth breakfast the same as any other day. While Mary ate, Isabella readied a basin of warm water for Mary to wash, and then stoked the fire to take the early morning chill out of the air in the room.

      Mary then noticed that the maid was busy packing things into cloth bags and she briefly wondered why, before she recalled that she was being married off to some stranger today, in a bid to remove her from David Franklyn’s house. The idea of being betrothed to a man she’d never met before, left her with the sense of sucking on sour lemons, which was very unpleasant indeed. Never-the-less, her grandmother had always told her when she was a child, that if someone gave you sour lemons, then you must make lemonade. Mary Elizabeth wished more than anything that her grandmother was here to help her. Lord knows Katherine Elizabeth Sinclair would have never permitted any of this to have happened to her beloved granddaughter.

      Being as innocent as a young lady of seventeen, soon-to-be-eighteen, would be expected to be, Mary Elizabeth was fearful of the relationship that was soon to be between herself and the man she was to marry. She admitted only to herself that the thought of being kissed for the first time was something she had given much consideration to. She blushed, thinking about how in the past she had watched men walking through the park, and how from time to time she’d secretly noticed a handsome one or two. Her mind had tried to imagine what it would be like to be kissed by one of them and hoped her betrothed would be equally as enticing. The thought made her heart flutter and her cheeks pinken.

      Come along Lady Mary. We need to keep moving, or you’ll be late, Isabella tisked.

      She was packaged up tightly into her bloomers, layer-upon-layer of petticoats, bustle, corset, dress, and bonnet. Finally, with her parasol and gloves, she emerged from her bedroom elegantly

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