I have to say that I loved this story of a young woman duped into marriage by an unscrupulous man in need of her money. I wasn't too fond of the main character, Tilly Kirkland, though. Young and naïve, she had a little bit too much lust and a bit too little intelligence for my taste.
In 1891 Tilly thinks she is marrying for love after a whirlwind courtship with a man introduced to her by her grandfather. Her doubts begin during the reception when she realizes that her groom is not as ardent now that they are man and wife. After her grandfather collapses at the wedding Tilly decides to remain in England to care for him in his final days, leaving her marriage unconsummated as her husband returns home to the Channel Islands to tend to his business. When she receives no replies to her frequent letters to her new husband during this time she begins to fear for his well-being. After her grandfather's death she finally travels to her husband's estate to join him, only to discover that nothing about her husband and their marriage is as she expected. After tragedy strikes, the widowed Tilly flees to Australia to begin a new at Starwater with a new identity as governess to Nell, the precocious young daughter of a prison superintendent.
Like Carol Casella in Gemini, Freeman writes two stories simultaneously, but these are connected by place as best selling writer Nina Jones, in the present time, has settled into Starwater, the home of her great-grandmother, Nell. Nina is suffering from severe writer's block and harboring a secret only hinted at during her portions of the story. She searches Starwater for scraps of her grandmother's diaries and stories in hopes of finding inspiration for her floundering novel.
I would have liked a bit more of connection between the events of the present and the past in this novel. I also would have liked both Tilly and Nina to be stronger, but I really enjoyed Freeman's historical perspective and both of the storylines. It's worth reading.
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