Читать книгу Mishap Marriage - Хелен Диксон, Хелен Диксон, Helen Dickson - Страница 3

AUTHOR NOTE

Today the Caribbean, dotted with myriad islands, offers many blissfully unique experiences for the most discerning traveller. But things were very different in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when pirates infested the seas. This made me wonder what it would have been like for a European girl born into a powerful family who had chosen to make a Caribbean island their home. The island of Santamaria, which appears in MISHAP MARRIAGE, is my own creation.

Shona McKenzie, who had lived all her life on Santamaria until she was sent to England to be educated, is adventurous, full of life and not afraid of making daring decisions. Her upbringing has given her a resilience that is equal to that of Carmelita, her Spanish sister-in-law, who, yearning to reign supreme over house and island, and jealous of Shona's long-standing influence, wants rid of her. Resentful of her sister-in-law, Shona cannot call upon her brother, Carmelita's doting husband, for support, so she must make her own way or be forced into a marriage not of her choosing—which is why she selects the powerful and devastatingly handsome shipping magnate Zachariah Fitzgerald for a husband when he weighs anchor in Santamaria's harbour.

Zachariah is instantly attracted to Shona, but he isn't looking for a wife. Compromised and coldly sacrificed, Shona is an innocent victim in the hands of her sister-in-law, who employs cunning and duplicity to get her off the island. Shona's brother insists Zachariah marries his ruined sister. Zachariah refuses. Each resorts to dishonest practices in order to find a resourceful solution to a difficult situation.

This provides the basis for the emotional conflicts that my protagonists must resolve when Shona, bent on revenge after Zachariah cruelly deserts her on their wedding night, follows him to London.

Read on and enjoy.