Against All Odds , livre ebook

Against All Odds
Marian L. Jasper
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-08-30
Against All Odds About the Author About the Book Dedication Copyright information Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Epilogue
About the Author
Marian L. Jasper was born in Hertfordshire and worked in the publishing industry within that area for many years. On the sale of her company, she moved to Jersey in the Channel Islands and eventually owned a small telecommunications company which served all the islands. She and her husband now live near family in Mandurah, near Perth in Western Australia.
About the Book
Liza’s journey in life continues through the eyes of the modern-day writer Ellie Fuller, and this second book of the series follows her return to America with her husband, Patrick, and children but no sooner are they on their way when disaster strikes and Liza’s life is threatened when she is considered a ‘Jonah’ by some members of the crew.
Many adventures occur on her journey but finally she reaches her beloved town of Benson. There are still highs and lows in her life and when she experiences a powerful vision of the future, she risks her marriage, her family and her freedom by acting on what she has seen.
Ellie Fuller also experiences that vision but she has yet to interpret its meaning, although she knows that what Liza saw and acted upon was so important that the risks that she took were justified.
Ellie also realises that Lord Jamie Edgeworth had played an important part in Liza’s life but the current Lord Edgeworth was being particularly uncooperative, as he expressed that he had no desire to delve into the past of someone whom he did not wish to consider as ever having had anything to do with his family. Ellie and her brother, Eddy, knew that they would have to face the wrath of Lord Edgeworth in order to get to the truth.
Dedication
Dedicated to my husband, Paul, whose patience has been phenomenal and whose endless cups of coffee have kept me inspirational.
Copyright information
Copyright © Marian L. Jasper (2019)
The right of Marian L. Jasper to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528939669 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528939676 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528970020 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Also by Marian L. Jasper
For All Time
First in the Liza Marchant series
Introduction
“Are you still having your dreams?” Eddie Fuller asked his sister, Ellie. Whereas he had originally had the vivid dreams about Liza Marchant, she now only seemed to visit Ellie. She was constantly with her when Ellie was researching and writing Liza’s life story. In fact Ellie felt that Liza was writing it herself and whilst doing that, Ellie was experiencing the joys and sadness as if she was Liza.
“Yes, I am Ed, but she seems to appreciate that I needed a break from writing for a while.” The emotions that she had experienced had drained her and she wondered how Liza Marchant had coped with such traumas.
She had felt Liza’s nervousness during her wedding in 1837 to James Marchant when she was just seventeen-years-old and he was forty-seven; she had cried with her when he and his son from his first marriage died and when her own son, Jonathan, died soon after his birth. She had sensed Liza’s frustration with Lord Jamie Edgeworth’s constant amorous pursuit of her which led to her attempt to avoid him by travelling to America with her companion, Kate Templar, only to be followed by him and eventually captured by the Cherokees who believed that she would fulfil their legend that a green-eyed woman would bring prosperity to their tribe.
Ellie’s stomach had shaken and quivered with fear when Liza had travelled to freedom, ending in finding sanctuary in the small town of Benson, where she gave birth to her son, Matthew, and there was also the love that she found with handsome Lieutenant Patrick Kelly and her happy marriage to him, followed by the unremitting sadness she felt when it was unsure that Patrick had really been able to marry her. She went back to Belfast and friends, but Patrick came to find her and assured her that they most certainly were married and after many ups and downs they made their way back to America having taken Patrick’s nephew, John, into their family.
“Have you heard from the current Lord Edgeworth?” asked Eddie.
“Just a brief note saying that it was part of the Edgeworth history that he did not wish to pursue. What he thinks happened I will have to find out, but I won’t let him get away with not saying what his idea of Liza is. I’m sure he has never been given correct information,” said Ellie, “or the family don’t want to admit that their ancestor’s pursuit of Liza caused many of her problems.”
“Well, Ellie, you’ve seen her through two, if not three, marriages; a couple of births, and several deaths; where do you go from here?” asked Eddie.
“It has to be their journey across to New York, she is telling me that it needs to be looked at but she is also telling me that Jamie Edgeworth is still not able to rest in peace until his life is also put in order,” replied Ellie.
Chapter 1
Patrick and Liza were in the captain’s cabin, which was relatively large, but the bed seemed very small in comparison to what they had been used to. There was an adjoining room which would be used as a sitting and dining room, and the captain would also be using it for his maps and to dine in. There was another cabin on the bridge deck which was for the boys and Mary. The two boys’ beds were placed virtually together and there was a curtain which meant that their children’s nurse, Mary, could have a certain amount of privacy.
Mary was hanging up the boys’ and her clothes that they would need over the next weeks, and when she had finished that, she was going to come and help Liza to sort out what she would require over the following weeks at sea. Patrick had already sorted out his uniforms; he was very easy to look after.
The boys had their supper with Mary fairly early and were tired so they were in bed by the time Patrick and Liza went in for their dinner. Captain Forde was waiting for them and offered them a sherry. During their conversation over the meal, he told them that they had two families from Ireland travelling to America and that when they docked at Southampton on the following day, there were two more families joining them, one from France and one from Spain. He could not remember how many members were in each family, but he knew that there were children.
He said that it was going to be a little crowded as they were carrying quite some goods for the Marchant & Fuller warehouses in New York. “Will they be living amongst the stores then?” asked Liza.
“Don’t worry, there’s room enough for them to live and sleep and they can walk around the deck at allocated times if the sea is not too choppy,” said Captain Forde.
“You don’t know how many of them there are then,” said Liza.
“No, but my first mate does, he has it all in hand. There’s no need for you to worry about them, they won’t be packed like the slave or the ‘coffin’ ships; they will be quite comfortable. All we must do is pray for a calm voyage.”
“I didn’t see them board today,” said Patrick.
“No, they’ve been aboard for two days. They don’t have the money to stay at a hotel, so when they arrived they were allowed on board but told not to get in the way of the sailors loading our shipment.”
“Was that how you travelled over the first time, Patrick?” asked Liza.
“No, I was on a passenger ship and my stepfather gave me enough money to have a very small cabin to myself. It was cramped but private enough. There were many on the lower decks which appeared to be very uncomfortable and one or two did die on the trip, but I believe that they were already unwell when they boarded,” said Patrick.
“How do they eat, do you provide their food as part of their passage?” asked Liza.
“No, they bring their own food, although we would not see them go hungry. They have been instructed on what to bring and how to keep it edible. They can utilise our cooking facilities, but under supervision as we want no out of control fires aboard the ship,” said the captain.
“Do you take many passengers on this type of trip?” asked Liza.
“On each trip, we do pick up six or eight families. It’s been a while since we picked up foreigners at Southampton and I do hope that they have understood what is expected of them.”
“If we have time before we leave Southampton, I can make sure that they understand what they should bring and what they should be doing. How long will we be docked there?” asked Liza.
“We will be arriving soon after dawn, but not leaving until the evening tide. I take it that you speak French and Spanish then. It would be a great help if you wouldn’t mind doing that. It’s all very well agents telling us that everything is in order, but we haven’t been able to make sure that these passengers know what they are doing,” said the captain.
Liza never ceased to amaze Patrick. He had known that she was conversant in languages and he had thought that it was mainly French and of course, Cherokee, but had no idea that Spanish was also in her repertoire. He then remembered the Ita