Fleeting Hope

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.