Belle Canadienne at Amazon
This charming cover is a romantic 19th century vision of what was, according to my research, a far harsher reality. Women were scarce in all frontier colonies, but those who did dare the journey were as strong and probably just as ready to put the past behind them as the men for whom they are destined.
All my historical novels may be found:
Ocean
and sky! Ocean and sky!
Jeanne had never before sailed out of sight
of land. To see nothing but the ship
surrounded by so much deep, deep water and feel herself riding over such
massive swells--like hills that endlessly traveled beneath the ship--was a new
and frightening experience. Agathe had
sailed to the Canary Islands with her brother and all the way down the coast of
Spain, too, but even she appeared full of wonder at the endlessness of the
Atlantic.
In Jeanne's earlier coastal voyages, the
welcome shout "Land Ho" had come quickly, but now a month had passed
and they were only half--or, perhaps a third – of the way to their next sight
of land. Only time alone would tell. A
single heavy two-day storm through which they had passed had made both women
seasick and afraid for the first time in all their sailing lives...
Below the main deck were those who were emigrating. A few had wives with them. Some of these folks were tradesmen--cobblers, coopers, and smiths--who had been engaged to work only for an indenture's term in New France. There were soldiers and some carpenters too. Two of those were indentured, but there was also the ship's carpenter and his apprentice.
As well, peasant farmers were among the
passengers, men who were promised land after they served a three-year term of
indenture to the gentlemen seigneurs among whom the new land had been divided. Their job would be immense for they would be
clearing virgin forest, breaking sod, and facing the savages. After their term of indenture was over, just
as such peasants did in France, they would continue to pay rent to the mostly
absent seigneurs who held title to the land on which they labored. It was a hard bargain, this Jeanne
understood, but she also knew that farmland was almost impossible to obtain in
France if you were a younger son. These
brave paysan were willing to take the
chance...
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Also in the Canadian Historical Brides series:
Fly Away Snow Goose
a residential school story set in Northwest Territories
Teens caught by the Mounties and sent to an Indian
Residential School in 1950's. Based on actual survivor stories, this is a tale of
terror, endurance, escape, survival, and love, as 4 children journey home
through the Canadian wilderness.
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