Would that life could have been that simple. Instead, Sylvie Galant and her Acadian community was caught between two warring factions that considered their lush farmland as a prosperous conquest . . . when the smoke cleared, the peaceful French Catholics had lost everything.
At the forefront of the British invasion was a legendary Scotsman, Major William Blackburn, whose British Army Rangers moved like phantoms among the woods of Acadie, gathering reconnaissance and striking fear within the tight knit community. Sylvie's brief encounter with the man had proven how easily she could be duped, his easy mannerisms and polite questions had evaporated her guard against strangers. Imagine her surprise and subsequent inner turmoil when their paths cross again in Virginia. Clearly, neither had ever forgotten the other.
"You stole my heart, Sylvie Galant, the moment I wiped milk off your shoes."
As
1754 is drawing to a close, tensions between the French and the British
on Canada's Acadian shore are reaching a fever pitch. Seamstress Sylvie
Galant and her family--French-speaking Acadians wishing to remain
neutral--are caught in the middle, their land positioned between two
forts flying rival flags. Amid preparations for the celebration of Noël,
the talk is of unrest, coming war, and William Blackburn, the British
Army Ranger raising havoc across North America's borderlands.
As
summer takes hold in 1755 and British ships appear on the horizon,
Sylvie encounters Blackburn, who warns her of the coming invasion.
Rather than participate in the forced removal of the Acadians from their
land, he resigns his commission. But that cannot save Sylvie or her
kin. Relocated on a ramshackle ship to Virginia, Sylvie struggles to
pick up the pieces of her life. When her path crosses once more with
William's, they must work through the complex tangle of their shared,
shattered past to navigate the present and forge an enduring future.
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