Victorian Turnabout
A Period Romance
by
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Suddenly, without warning, a dirty vagrant rose up from behind a bush and grabbed her reins! Emerald screamed and jerked the horse’s head to the side, but the tattered stranger held tight and grabbed her arm to jerk her down from the saddle.
“Now, missy, this horse is exactly what I needs. I’m tired o’ walkin’ an’ you prob’ly has more like it to home.”
Lying in a crumpled heap on the road, scared out of her wits, Emerald screamed, and flailed her riding crop at her attacker’s hands.
“Stop that, you vixen!” he yelled and grabbed the crop. His blackened teeth and dirty, stringy hair told her exactly what she could expect. “You and me is goin’ to have a understanding, right now!” He glanced up and down the road and dragged her over to one side, despite Emma’s screams and struggles all the way. He looped the reins over a bush and ripped open the vest and shirtwaist under her jacket. “Now we’ll see who’s in charge, Ya’ little bitch!”
He abruptly threw her riding skirt over her head, held her down with his knees and struggled to release his own clothes. Fortunately, his determination to rape her blinded him to the thick limb, swung like a club, which slammed into his head knocking him down. Sarah helped Emma up from the ground, then quickly mounted the horse and pulled her up behind.
“Oh, my God! Where’d you come from?” Emma asked, breathing heavily and shaking from the escape.
“I’ve been for a walk,” Sarah replied, wheeling the horse, sending him galloping toward home. “Are you all right?”
“No, he hurt my leg,” she cried, weeping in frustration. She twisted, trying to examine herself.
“Is it bleeding?”
“I don’t think so. Slow down. I have to --” She buttoned her jacket to hide the ripped shirtwaist, and straightened her bonnet. “Don’t you dare tell papa, Sarah. Do you hear me? You killed that man!” That thought should resonate in her cousin’s mind.
Reaching their road, Sarah turned in and slowed the horse to a trot. “I heard you. Neither one of us was supposed to be on the road alone. Where were you going?”
“For a ride.” A gross understatement. “Who, who was that despicable man? He tried to--- I might have been ruined!” Her breathing slowed, and she began to gain control. “You won’t snitch on me because you’d be in trouble, too.”
At the turn of the road before the house, Sarah drew the horse to a halt, released her knee, and slid off the saddle. “It won’t do for us to arrive like this. Here,” Sarah handed the reins to her cousin, who slipped down from the back of the horse. Sarah strode down the lane to the house, while she casually walked her horse back to the barn.
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About the Book
With the terrible Civil War over, eighteen-year-old, orphaned Sarah Dietrich, reared by her aunt and uncle on their West Virginia farm, looks forward to a family celebration. Their neighbor Winn wants to court her, but she is not ready for marriage and longs to achieve something of merit beforehand. Upon learning her aunt’s highly immoral expectations for her, followed by the scene where she bludgeons a vagrant to save her cousin Emma’s virtue, she leaves the farm in male attire to avoid either consequence.
Spoiled Emma marries Winn and helps her brother Worth, who returns from the War handicapped, to run the farm. Gradually, with his insistence, she begins to mature. Worth finds support and encouragement from the Mulatto maid, who carries his child.
On her search for a new life, Sarah meets Jason, a gentleman, railroad agent, falls in love with him, but cannot hope for its return because of her male persona, and her past. She assumes the care of an orphan boy, and befriends Trudy, a young woman fleeing prostitution. Resuming her feminine role, Sarah and her friends find work and housing. Her relationship to Jason begins to change, when he meets her as a young woman, but that does not affect her past as a murderess.
In this post-Civil War romance, all of the young women with dreams of improving their lives, must overcome social mores of the period to achieve their goals of security, accomplishment, and love.
About the Author
With degrees in English, from Northwestern University and The University of Northern Colorado, D. taught college courses, edited a small-town’s newspaper and a military magazine. Her checkered career includes airline positions, merchandising and real estate sales and design. An inveterate traveler she lived abroad six years. She owns and manages Antique Legacy with Adam, her son, in Colorado Springs.
On the Other Hand, is her guide for collectors and inheritors of personal property. Victorian Turnabout, her post-Civil-War novel, depicts four romances of courageous women who fight Victorian social mores to achieve their hearts’ desires.