Lord of the Wilderness Read online

  Juliet’s mouth worked up and down. “I thought we were going to live in a log cabin. I thought we were going to work your little patch of earth.”

  “Oh, that.” He swept her into the house and she estimated, more than a dozen rooms on the first floor.

  “Our little farm,” he laughed, “has in excess of five thousand acres. And you will have little work to do with hired servants.”

  He did not let her exclaim as she struggled to take in every single thing. Moira’s words came back to her. Sometimes, the bad things that happen to us in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us. How right she had been.

  Joshua glided into a dining room and stood her in front of a tapestry. “A belated wedding gift from my father. I remember how you were immersed in the tapestry at the Hayes’. This is of finer quality and has hung in Belvoir Castle for centuries.”

  Juliet sat in a chair her frontiersman husband had pulled up, transfixed by the beautiful tapestry. Pulling out her breast, she let her baby greedily suckle while gazing upon the story of her Achilles and the lovely maiden.

  She considered the tapestry, discovering how every aspiration, purpose, struggle, every hue, every character, every deed and consequence, every part of worldly realism and the conclusions that it produced, every connection made, every delicate instant of history and possibility, every emotion and birth and vow was intertwined into that endless, magnanimous web.

  Her real life Achilles knelt beside her, nuzzling his chin into their daughter’s downy red hair. “I am so blessed to have you in my life, Juliet.”

  She would always remember this time, this instant, this memory stamped forever on her mind. Joshua, their daughter, Rebekah, and she were each a thread woven together to make a tapestry of elaborate texture. And the tapestry told their story…the story was their past soaring to their future.

  Author’s Note

  This is a novel, and to construe it as anything else would be an error. The frontier during the American Revolution was a place of beauty and violence. For the sake of storytelling, time was compressed of fictionalized events, places and people. Real components of New York and Pennsylvania personages and history are woven and mirror events of the Cherry Valley Massacre, Wyoming Valley Massacre and the brutal annihilation of Fort Forty and Fort Wintermute by Tories and the Iroquois.

  Thayendanegea, or Joseph Brant, was a Mohawk War Chief and educated at Moor’s Indian Charity School, a forerunner of Dartmouth College. He had traveled to England where he met the King and had great celebrity.

  During General Sullivan’s campaign, the homelands and foundation of Iroquois life had been shattered. Breaking the Iroquois Confederacy’s power to maintain their crops and use their villages caused famine and dispersion of the Iroquois. Many relocated to Canada, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, leaving their homelands in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio open for the white man’s westward expansion.

  White slavery under the guise of the “Indentured Servant” is a forgotten story of the thousands of Britons who lived and died in bondage in the American Colonies—a cruelty that spanned a hundred and seventy years. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, more than three hundred thousand white people were shipped as slaves to work in the tobacco fields of Virginia, and on farms throughout the emerging Colonies. Because of the brutal conditions, life expectancy was no more than two years. Street urchins in London were swept off the streets, and parents of large families too poor to maintain all their young were duped into selling their children for what they thought yielded opportunity. Brothels were raided to provide “breeders” and prisons were purged of convicts and paraded like livestock. George Washington abhorred the trade and abolished the practice with American Independence.

  The Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, people recognize animals and spirits with deep reverence, believing they possess potent “orenda” or great power and can aid one to achieve success through particular gifts. By understanding the religion of the People of the Longhouse, one can perceive the mystical connection with the animal world which produces great feelings of affection, wonder, awe, and—fear. The combination of these sentiments encourages great animal beings to establish themselves as productive and good, or unearths monstrosities that use “otgont” or destructive power endangering humans.

  I always say that I’m a storyteller, not a historian, and as a storyteller, I’m more concerned with the what-ifs than the why-nots. I so enjoy taking a bit of artistic license in order to bring you the most exciting, sensual, love story that my what-if imagination can create.

  Acknowledgements

  Most books wouldn’t be written without the help of some special people. I would like to acknowledge Caroline Tolley, my developmental editor and Linda Styles, my copy editor and Scott Moreland, my line editor. Their insight and expertise were indispensable. Hugs also to my spouse, Edward, five children, eight grandchildren, Eugene Dollard, Dr. Marcianna Dollard, and posthumously, Loretta Bysiek—your love and comfort surround me.

  Many thanks to the gracious support of Nancy Crawford, Brenda Kosinski, Paula Ursoy and Western New York Romance Writers Group.

  Also, many thanks to Mr. James Crane, Director of Seneca Language and Custom School for his infinite knowledge of the Senecas, posthumously to Chief Corbett Sundown of Tonawanda who inspired my love of the Iroquois. Men of his ilk walk the earth but seldom am I glad to have shared the same path. Special thanks to the late Seneca medicine woman, Myrtle Petersen, who inspired my love of wild plants and medicine. Also, special thanks to the late Princess Morning Dove for her diligent and delightful descriptions of the Iroquois.

  Dear Readers,

  It has given me great pleasure to write Lord of the Wilderness for you. There is no greater compliment to me as an author than for my readers to become so involved with the characters that you want me to write more. That said, I’m happily returning to the Civil War era and the Rourke family.

  As you know, my first installment, Surrender the Wind, detailed the journey of Catherine Fitzgerald, a wealthy New York heiress and legendary Rebel General John Daniel Rourke. My second installment will acquaint us with General Rourke’s brother, Colonel Lucas Rourke, head of Civilian Spying for the North. Colonel Lucas Rourke is honor bound to uphold the Union and responsible for a vast network of spies. When Confederates abduct him, his only hope is the enigmatic spy who surrenders her heart and soul to save him.

  Rachel Pierce is the notorious Saint. Witnessing her father’s brutal murder by slaveholders, she emerges disciplined in the high art of spying, moving through southern latitudes like a ghost with no trace of her footsteps and defying every one of her enemies without the slightest hint of their knowledge. Caught in a dangerous web of intrigue, they uncover secrets that will prolong the war and cast them both in danger.

  Although I can’t tell you much more I can promise you this: like my last novels, it is written with one goal in mind—to make you experience the laughter, the love, and all the other myriad emotions of its characters. And when it’s over to leave you smiling…

  Warmly,

  Elizabeth St. Michel

  P.S. If you would like to receive an emailed newsletter from me, which will keep you informed about my books-in-progress, please contact me on Facebook or my webpage at elizabethstmichel.com The greatest gift you can give an author is a review for her work. I would be thrilled to hear from you!

  Praise for Elizabeth St. Michel

  The Winds of Fate

  “…captivating romance that takes us to the world of seventeenth-century London…Sexual tension and legal and familial intrigue ensue with the reader cheering on the lovely pair.”

  Publishers Weekly

  “…has everything…full of passion, betrayal, mystery and all the good stuff readers love.”

  ABNA Reviewer

  “Original…strong-willed heroine…I love all of it…the unlikely premise of a female member of the aristocracy visiting a man who is condemned to
die and asking him to marry her.”

  ABNA Reviewer

  Surrender the Wind

  “The lush descriptions of the southern countryside, the witty repartee between the characters, the factual descriptions of battles woven into the storylines, and the rich characters kept me glued to the pages.”

  Alwyztrouble’s Romance Reviews

  Surrender the Wind received the “Crowned Heart” and National “RONE AWARD” finalist for excellence. “With twists and turns…and several related subplots woven in, no emotional stone is left unturned in this romance.”

  InD’tale Magazine

  Sweet Vengeance

  “A historical romantic masterpiece…sizzling sensuality, touching emotions, and great historical detail.

  International Book Award

  Books by Elizabeth St. Michel

  The Winds of Fate

  Surrender the Wind

  Duke of Rutland Series

  Sweet Vengeance

  Light of My Heart

  Only You

  Lord of the Wilderness

  Find all of Elizabeth’s books on her website

  About the Author

  Elizabeth St. Michel, the best-selling author of the Duke of Rutland Series has received multiple awards for her work.

  Her first book, The Winds of Fate, was a number-one hit on Amazon’s list of best sellers and a quarterfinalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

  Sweet Vengeance: Duke of Rutland Series I received the International Book Award.

  Surrender the Wind received the Holt medallion and the Reader’s Choice Award and was a finalist for the National Rone Award, which honors literary excellence in romance writing.

  St. Michel lives in New York and the Bahamas.

  Lord of the Wilderness

  Duke of Rutland Series IV

  Copyright © 2019 by Elizabeth St. Michel

  All rights presently reserved by the author. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Elizabeth St Michel.

  ISBN: 978-1-950016-01-3

  ISBN: 1-950016-01-3

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2019904319