Mari’s Way
England, 1768. Mari Westin is the eldest daughter of a rich widower. He spends most of his time in his London mansion with his flamboyant mistress, Tamsin, leaving his son and two daughters back in Ravenhill, his country home. At an age when other girls wear pretty gowns, tight corsets, and dainty shoes, Mari wears boys’ clothes to climb trees, vault gates, and race in the meadows with her brother. When she is introduced to Bryce, a young handsome American, she is immediately infatuated. To accompany him back to Virginia, Mari disguises herself as a cabin boy and stows away on the Integrity. But Bryce is not on board, and Mari must work for her passage, and then, once they reach port, find work and accommodation as a bonded household servant.
Once settled, she begins to learn of the discontent the colonists feel toward the British king and government. Rebellion is fomenting. When she falls in love with Stewart Dean, a young American sailor, Mari sails back to England with him, but life is not simple for this adventurous miss. Her father marries her to an aging governor of a Caribbean island, where Mari, soon widowed, has to deal with an attack by some renegade Americans led by none other than her beloved American sailor, now Captain Dean.
Like all romances, Mari’s story has a happy ending, but the story, without a strong narrative arc, reads more like a picaresque. Mari roves to and fro, different characters command the spotlight and then recede, and the tone is light and pleasant despite the prominence of slavery and war. Still, as an English reader, I learned much about the American Revolutionary War. A highly recommended read.
