Widow's Ferry (ePub)

Anora Claire Sennet, her parents, her Aunt Carrie, and her husband, Ruben Tillery, start out from Iowa in 1841, headed for the Oregon Territory. Her parents' dream, to build a ferry-crossing in the verdant Oregon territory known as the Willamette Valley. But Anora finds herself alone with Ruben, who uses her as his personal slave, abusing her and breaking her spirit until there is hardly anything left of her former bright and beautiful self. Ruben is working the ferry of her parents' dream under the name of Ben Talbot in Tekenah, Oregon. She remembers very little of how she got to be in this situation. She only knows her parents and aunt are dead. Tiring of the hard work of the ferry, and seeking new victims to conquer, Ruben/Ben abandons her and leaves Anora with no pleasant choices for survival. Neither Whit Comstock, the handsome drifter cowboy from her past, who brings with him his optimism, nor the ambitious, up and coming Paxton Hayes with his vision of a fruitful, prosperous partnership, nor Paxton's brother-in-law, Hank Reason, can erase or expunge from Anora's memory the nightmares of her past, or the fear of what Ruben will do to her when he returns and finds her still breathing. Hank's wife, Lydia, close to delivering her second child, requests Anora come help with the Reason's ailing little girl, Isabell. Lydia delivers a stillborn son and dies of a broken heart. Now, living in a home with two bachelors, Anora's presence in Paxton Hayes' home creates a swirl of nasty gossip among the citizens of the fledgling frontier town. Her place is across the river, working the ferry on her own and to hell with those who claim they only want to help her. Deathly afraid of the river, working the ferry day in and day out is a living purgatory. The days and months pass, and there is no sign of Ruben. Anora's friendship with Hank Reason grows, but where will it lead? Where is Ruben and when will he return? What about the ferry? What should she do with it? Anora is faced with gut-wrenching decisions, and the fear of Ruben's eventual return haunts her. Can she put Hank and his daughter in danger? Will she ever find the peace and love she desires?