Read Into the Wilderness Online

Authors: Sara Donati

Tags: #Life Sciences, #New York (State), #Frontier and Pioneer Life, #Indians of North America, #Science, #General, #Romance, #Historical, #Historical Fiction, #Women Pioneers, #New York (State) - History - 1775-1865, #Pioneers, #Fiction, #Cultural Heritage, #Mohawk Indians

Into the Wilderness

BOOK: Into the Wilderness
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Into the Wilderness
Into the Wilderness [1]
Sara Donati
Random House Digital, Inc. (1998)
Tags:
Life Sciences, New York (State), Frontier and Pioneer Life, Indians of North America, Science, General, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Women Pioneers, New York (State) - History - 1775-1865, Pioneers, Fiction, Cultural Heritage, Mohawk Indians

Weaving a tapestry of fact and fiction, Sara Donati’s epic novel sweeps us into another time and place…and into a breathtaking story of love and survival in a land of savage beauty.It is December of 1792. Elizabeth Middleton leaves her comfortable English estate to join her family in a remote New York mountain village. It is a place unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered—a white man dressed like a Native American: Nathaniel Bonner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, Elizabeth soon finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as with her own family. Interweaving the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati’s compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portait of an emerging America.

INTO
THE WILDERNESS

 
by

 
Sara Donati

Synopsis

Dedication

Author's Notes and Acknowledgements

Major Characters

RESIDENTS OF PARADISE

Part 1:

Discovering Paradise

Chapter 1

December 1792

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

PART 2:

Into the Wilderness

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

PART 3:

Will Ye Go, Lassie, Go?

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

 

Synopsis

When
Elizabeth Middleton, twenty—nine years old and unmarried, leaves her aunt
Merriweather's comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the
remote mountain village of Paradise, on the edge of the New—York wilderness,
she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose, to teach school. It
is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever
experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered, a
white man dressed like a native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his
blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between—Two—Lives.
Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, white,
black and native American,
Elizabeth
soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she
clashes with her own father as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has
plans for his daughter, betrothal to local doctor, Richard Todd.

An
alliance with Todd could extract her father from ruin but would call into
question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his
father, and a small group of native Americans, live and hunt.

As
Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with
the choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest and a
desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation.

Elizabeth
's
ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to
come; trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel's own secrets
and divided soul.

Interweaving
the fate of the remnants of the Mohawk nation with the destiny of two lovers,
Sara Donati's compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait
of an emerging
America
.

 

Sara
Donati lives with her husband and daughter in the
Pacific
northwest
, where she teaches creative writing and linguistics at
the university level.

BANTAM
BOOKS

New
York London Toronto Sydney Auckland A Bantam Book / August 1998 All rights
reserved.

Copyright
(C) 1998 by Sara Donati.

Book
design by Dana Leigh Treglia.

Endpaper
map by Laura Hartman Maestro

An
alternate selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club.

Bantam
Books 1540 Broadway New York, NY 10036 Visit Bantam's Website at www.bantam.com

Printed
in the
United States of
America

No
part of this book may be reproduced or transmiitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without the permission in writing
from the publisher.

For
information address: Bantam Books.

Library
of Congress Cataloging and Publication Data Donati, Sara, 1956Into the
wilderness / Sara Donati.

p.
em.

ISBN
0—553—10736—4

1.
New York
(State)—history—1775—1865—Fiction.

2.
Frontier and pioneer life—
New York
(State)—Fiction.

3.
Women pioneers—
New York
(State)—Fiction.
 
4. Mohawk
Indians—Fiction.

5.
Historical fiction.

gsafd.
I. Title.

PS3554.04692315
1998

81
3'.54—DC21 97—39051

CIP

Published
simultaneously in the
United States
and
Canada

Bantam
Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing
Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and
the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
and in other countries. Marca registration. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway,
New York
,
New
York
10036
.

PRINTED
IN THE
UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA

Dedication

For
Emmy and (as always) for Bill and Elisabeth.

 

Author's Notes and
Acknowledgements

 

In
the past few years I have learned that writers of historical fiction must hang
together or go aground. Without the support, advice, insight, finger—wagging,
ranting, and the tons of factual information others have shared with me, this
book would not exist in a form worthy of consideration.

In
particular, I am thankful to: J. F. Cooper for inspiration, and S. Clemens, for
perspective; Diana Gabaldon for constant and consistent encouragement, for
contacts of enormous value, for her generosity in matters small and large, and
for long discussions about this strange and compelling undertaking of writing
historical fiction; Kaera Hallahan for reading the entire manuscript at a
difficult juncture, for providing priceless commentary and badly needed,
no—nonsense encouragement and giving me the skinny on horses, and for bookmarks
that tell tales; Michelle La France for help with things historical and Gaelic,
for finally falling in love with Nathaniel, and for her companionship and
friendship along the way; Doctors Jim and Janet Gilsdorf for medical details,
Janet on infectious disease; Jim on the nature and treatment of wounds. Jim in
particular for invaluable technical and historical detail on hunting and
trapping and canoeing in the bush; Marty Calvert for listening, as she always
does, with skill, and for putting her finger on holes with gentle insistence;
Margaret Nesse, for careful readings and entertaining discussions; The writers
who grace the Research and Craft section of the CompuServe Writers' Forum, for
sharing their experience and expertise in a wide variety of subjects, from the
nature of black fly bites, rifle slings, and left hooks to eighteenth—century
terms for hard candy and pregnancy. I am indebted to Mac Beckett, Merrill
Cornish, Susie Crandall, Hall Elliott, Rob Frank, Karl Hagen, Walter Hawn, Ed
Huntress, Janet Kaufmann, Janet Kieffer, Rosina Lippi—Green, Susan Martin,
Janet McConnaughey, Don H. Meredith, Susan Lynn Peterson, Bonnee Pierson,
Michelle Powell, Barbara Schnell, Beth Shope, Elise Skidmore, Phyllis Tarbell,
Arnold Wagner, and Karen S. White, for their time, interest, and generosity. In
particular, I am thankful to Dr. Ellen Mandell for providing a wealth of
material on eighteenth—century medical practices, and for many encouraging
words and useful discussions.

In
the Collectibles Forum, Michael Crowder, Chuck Huber, and Neil Rothschild were
helpful with details on late—eighteenth—century currency and coins; David
Karraker for telling me that I could write all those years ago, and for his
faith in me regardless of such trivial matters as differences in taste. If I
could have fit his Ben and Janie into this tale, I would have done it, just to
see the look on his face; My agent, Jill Grinberg, for her enthusiasm, energy,
endless hard work, and for those uplifting answering—machine messages; At
Bantam, Nita Taublib and Wendy McCurdy for loving this story and treating it so
well; Wendy Fisher House for careful listening; Pat Rosenmeyer for enthusiastic
reading; Mom Dressler for feeding me chocolate and sympathy; Scott Spector for
taking me to the movies; My family for their patience and faith in me; Bill for
his support in the face of crises of all kinds; Elisabeth, for her first breath
and for every one she has ever taken since and for the billions yet to come. I
thank her especially for not expecting me to mend her socks; Now there's only
Emmy. Emmy Liston provided calm when I needed it, enthusiasm when I was down,
realism when I was off the ground, mysticism when I was too firmly anchored,
faith in me at times I could spare myself not one shred. She gave me something
I was missing in a greater writing community with an aesthetic that made me
claustrophobic: permission to write this story. She is a writer's writer, and
she is my friend, and this one is for her.

BOOK: Into the Wilderness
2.6Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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