“And you,” Allan said with a smiling nod towards his
mother. “Will you be happy here, living in a city?”
“Oh, yes,” Betty said firmly. There was color in her
cheeks, and a sparkle in her eyes that had not been seen since
Sandy had died. “I’m needed here. Why, I can hardly wait for that
bairn to be born!” She glanced warmly at Margaret, who smiled in
return.
“Nor can I,” she said softly.
“You know,” Henry said to Allan and Harriet, “you
can stay here as long as you like. You’re family, you are always
welcome.”
Allan and Harriet exchanged a silent, understanding
look. “We thank you kindly,” Allan said after a moment, “for this
has certainly been a homecoming, and a wonderful one at that. But
we belong up on the island. That’s our home. It always has
been.”
Henry nodded his acceptance. “I thought as much, to
tell you the truth.”
Later, after they had retired to their bedroom,
Harriet stood in front of the window, watching the moonlight shift
in silver patterns across the cobblestones. Allan stood behind her,
his arms around her shoulders.
“It’s turned out all right, hasn’t it?” Harriet
asked softly. “I feel God has given me far more than I’d ever
dreamed of asking for.”
“Aye, He has.” Allan dropped a kiss on her shoulder.
“In the end, we came through. We all came through.” He paused, and
she could feel his smile against her hair. “Happy, my love?” he
asked.
Harriet gazed outside. The night was dark and soft,
a warm breeze like a whisper against her cheek. “Aye,” she replied
quietly, “I’m happy.”
THE END
Author’s Note
With any historical book, questions arise about how
much is based on fact. In this case, the story of the MacDougalls
and Campbells has clearly entered the realm of fiction. My
great-great-grandmother Margaret MacDougall did marry a sea captain
named Henry Moore, but she did not live in Boston or start a
charity school. However, an innovative school did start in Boston
in the same time period, The Temple School, founded by Amon Bronson
Alcott, the father of Louisa May who authored Little Women.
Counterfeiting was indeed a huge problem in this era
of American history. The Second Bank went out of business in 1832,
and state governments took over the job of supervising banks. With
over a thousand state banks issuing different types of paper money,
there were estimated to be at least thirty thousand different
designs and no real regulation of the printing of money. By the
1860s, it was estimated that one-third of all currency in
circulation was counterfeit.
The use of various chemicals as an anesthetic was
being experimented with in this time, and Dr Horace Wells, a
dentist in Hartford, is considered the father of modern anesthesia.
He experimented with ether, chloroform, and nitrous oxide (laughing
gas), but for the sake of clarity I have kept the experiments with
ether only.
You can read more about the MacDougalls and
Campbells in the third book in the Emigrants Trilogy, A Distant
Shore, which follows the Campell and MacDougall families to the far
reaches of Asia as well as in Boston and Prince Edward Island. It
will be available through Amazon in January 2013.
About the Author:
Kate Hewitt has
been writing creatively since she was five years old. She wrote a
lot of angst-ridden poetry in high school, and then moved onto
writing and directing plays about the meaning of life while in
college. After her first child was born she began to write short
stories--the perfect amount of words to complete during nap time.
After selling over 200 short stories to various women's magazines
around the world, she started to write for Harlequin Mills &
Boon, a long-held dream. She has written over 20 romances for
Harlequin Presents, and has been both a RITA and Romantic Times
Reviewer's Choice finalist. She has also written several historical
novels for a UK publisher. After living in both Yorkshire and New
York City, she now resides on the remote coast of Cumbria with her
husband, four children, and a Golden Retriever puppy. To learn more
about her books, visit Kate at
http://www.kate-hewitt.com