The Loyalist Trilogy

Young Lucinda Garner and her father are taking a late-night walk on Boston’s Long Wharf, when disguised men run past their hiding place, jump into small boats, and rush out to the Dartmouth anchored in the harbour. As the Garners watch, the masked men scramble up its sides and begin throwing chests of tea into the water, a warlike act that escalates the conflict. The British forces occupying Boston and the new Continental Army harrying the British come to blows.

When American colonists resort to war against Britain and her colonial attitudes, a young couple caught in the crossfire must find a way to survive. Pioneers in the wilds of New York State, John and Lucy face a bitter separation and the fear of losing everything, even their lives, when he joins Butler’s Rangers to fight for the King and leaves her to care for their isolated farm. As the war in the Americas ramps up, ruffians roam the colonies looking to snap up Loyalist land. Alone, pregnant, and fearing John is dead, Lucy must fight with every weapon she has. 

When the Revolutionary War turns in favor of the Americans, Loyalists John and Lucy flee across the Niagara River to a badly supplied British outpost surrounded by endless trees. He is off on a secret mission for Colonel Butler leaving her behind once again. In the camp full of distrust and hunger, word seeps out that John has gone over to the Americans and only two people will associate with Lucy - her friend, Nellie, who delights in telling her all the current gossip, and Sergeant Crawford, who refuses to clear John's name.

After the crushing end of the War of 1812, William and Catherine Garner find their allotted 200 acres in Nissouri Township by following the Thames River into the wild heart of Upper Canada. On their valuable land straddling the river, dense forest, wild beasts, displaced Natives, and pesky neighbors daily challenge them. The political atmosphere, laced with greed and corruption, threatens to undermine all of the new settlers’ hopes and plans. William knows he cannot take his family back to Niagara, but he longs to check on his parents from whom he has heard nothing for two years.