The Convict Girls
4 total works
Irreverent and streetwise prostitute Friday Woolfe is in London's notorious Newgate gaol, awaiting transportation. there, she meets three other girls: intelligent and opportunistic thief, Sarah Morgan, naive young Rachel Winter, and reliable and capable seamstress, Harriet Clarke.On the voyage to New South Wales their friendship becomes an unbreakable bond - but there are others on board who will change their lives forever. Friday makes an implacable enemy of Bella Jackson, a vicious woman whose power seems undiminished by her arrest and transportation, while Harriet is taken under the wing of an idealistic doctor, James Downey. Rachel catches the eye of a sinister passenger with more than honour on his mind.When they finally arrive on the other side of the world, they are confined to the grim and overcrowded Parramatta Female Factory. But worse is to come as the threat of separation looms. In the land behind the sun, the only thing they have is each other ...
1830s Sydney Town - with its bar brawls, blackmail, friendship, romance, tattoos, gin and much more - is brought vividly to life as feisty prostitute Friday, naive seamstress Harrie and cunning thief Sarah try to make their way as transported convict women.
Driven by madness ... saved by love.
'A door slammed shut somewhere inside Harrie, trapping all that she was and everything she'd ever been. The voices had won. She was damned. She was ... no one.'
1831: Assigned to a good family in Sydney town and now learning the art of tattoo, convict girl Harrie Clarke is still haunted by the horror of the brutal murder she and friends Friday Woolfe and Sarah Morgan committed the previous year. Powerful and vindictive criminal Bella Jackson continues to demand money in exchange for her silence regarding their crime. And just when it seems that Harrie and her fervent and long-time admirer James Downey might finally be united, an act of pure nastiness severely threatens their chances - and Harrie's life.
When things go from bad to much, much worse for Harrie, she is left teetering on the brink. But Friday, in love at last, is battling demons of her own, and Sarah is forced to lie low for fear of attracting the attention of the police. Who will be the one to rescue Harrie?
What had they done? What had she and Sarah and Friday done?
1830: Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Harriet Clarke and Sarah Morgan have been transported to Sydney from London. Sarah has been assigned to jeweller Adam Green, Harriet is a maid for the Barrett family, and Friday is working as a prostitute in a brothel. Each of them is struggling to forget the brutal crime they committed.
But their fate is no longer theirs to control. Vicious underworld queen Bella Jackson holds the girls' futures in the palm of her hand, biding her time until she exacts payment for what she knows about their misdeeds.
Harriet, racked with guilt, becomes convinced that their lost friend is haunting them, and while Friday succumbs to the bottle, Sarah has to fight for everything she holds dear. Once again, the girls must join forces to save one of their own. But which one?
And in the background Bella Jackson waits and watches ...
Praise for Deborah Challinor:
'Challinor is a good storyteller; her characters have depth and her historical backdrops are well researched, seamlessly joining fact and fiction and creating a convincing, atmospheric yarn' Bookseller + Publisher
'Seamlessly fuses historical fact and engrossing fiction' Queensland times
1832: Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Sarah Morgan and Harriet Clarke have been serving their sentences in Sydney Town for three years. For much of that time they have lived in fear of sinister and formidable Bella Jackson, who continues to blackmail them for a terrible crime. Each of them has begun to make a life for herself, but when Harrie's adopted child Charlotte is abducted and taken to Newcastle, the girls must risk their very freedom to save her.
But is Friday up to the task? Will the desperate battle with her own vices drive her to fail not only herself, but those she loves and all who love her?
In this final volume of a saga about four convict girls transported halfway around the world, friends and family reunite but cherished loved ones are lost, and an utterly shocking secret is revealed.
Praise for Deborah Challinor and the Convict Girls series:
'Deborah Challinor brings Australia's convict past to life' -- Good Reading
'Challinor is a good storyteller; her characters have depth and her historical backdrops are well researched, seamless joining fact and fiction and creating a convincing, atmospheric yarn' -- Bookseller + Publisher
'Seamlessly fuses historical fact and engrossing fiction' -- Queensland Times