The Taming of Amelia by Maura Seger

Amelia Daniels is a Puritan from the Netherlands, not all that long arrived in Boston from her former home. Her father was a Puritan as well, but had some decidedly un-Puritan ideas on the education of women. When he died shortly after their arrival in America, he left Amelia with a great deal of money, making her highly sought after as a wife. But Amelia will have none of the Puritans of Boston, because all of them have traded Puritan ideals for an assurance that their ways, and their ways only, are correct.

Not everyone feels that way, and Amelia has sought them out, wanting to found a colony of their own where the standards are just a bit more relaxed than in Boston. To do so, she approaches Garrick Marlowe, a captain who was given his start by her father. Garrick refuses to help her, telling her it is madness and that the Boston Council of Elders would never give her permission. She accepts his refusal, but refuses to give up.

Meanwhile, the Puritan family she has been staying with is conspiring to get her married to a Puritan Elder named Harkness. Harkness wants Amelia, for she is beautiful, but is determined to make her bow to him, through violence if necessary. When she publically refuses his suit, he decides to beat her in the middle of the market, but he is stopped by Garrick, who has been looking for provisions for his ship, but he will not pay the inflated prices the Boston merchants are demanding.

Garrick and Harkness fight, and Garrick wins, badly beating Harkness. Although grateful for her rescue by Garrick, Amelia attempts to persuade him once more to help her start her colony. Garrick again refuses. Amelia, feeling beaten but not giving up, leaves. Garrick feels admiration for her refusal to give up her dream, and decides instead to buy supplies for his ship from the Native Americans instead. This is witnessed by Harkness, who decides to take revenge on Garrick by spilling tar on his ship and setting it ablaze late at night, when everyone is asleep.

He succeeds and burns Garrick's ship to the waterline, severely injuring Garrick's first mate, a Dutchman. Garrick now has two choices, give up on being captain and take a lower position on another man's ship, which is anathema to him after being his own master for so long, or buy a ship from a captain who is retiring, for which Garrick doesn't have enough money.

Garrick, feeling he has little choice, contacts Amelia, agreeing to take her new colonists where she wants and helping her set up her colony in exchange for enough money to help him buy the new ship, in which they will be partners. She agrees and also helps nurse Garrick's injured first mate. They buy the ship, load the colonists, their animals and cargo and sail before first light.

Garrick quickly sails them to the site Amelia has chosen for her colony, and she signs an agreement with the Pequot tribe for the lands to belong to her colony, called Belle Haven. But the beginning isn't very tranquil. First, Harkness leads a band of Puritans to imprison Amelia and her group, but the colonists fight them off with the help of Garrick and his men, routing the group and sending them fleeing back to Boston.

Then, Amelia notices a Pequot brave named Mayano, son of the Pequot chief Owenoke, desires the daughter of one of the colonists. Amelia attempts to head this off before anything can happen, and appears to succeed, while at the same time bringing them closer to the Pequots. Soon after, having grown close during this time, Amelia and Garrick become lovers. She tries not to think about how she will eventually lose him, because he only promised to stay for six months.

Soon after, Mayano leads a bunch of braves to attack the colony, where he is killed by Garrick and the braves driven off. Amelia, Garrick and the other colonists return Mayano's body to Owenoke, who is saddened by the death of his only surviving son, but thankfully he doesn't blame the colonists. This isn't the end of the trouble he will cause them, however.

Shortly after, a priest arrives from Boston, saying he is there to make sure they remain on the right spiritual path. Amelia reluctantly accepts him and his help, but when the female settler that Mayano was watching reveals she is pregnant by Mayano and wants to abort his child, Amelia won't help her abort a life, and the girl tells Amelia that the priest is speaking out against her in subtle ways to the other colonists, insinuating that she might be a witch with powers from the devil, in order to goad Amelia into helping her, or failing that, to hurt her. But Amelia stands firm and the other woman runs off. Amelia confesses the girl's words to Garrick, who is incensed at the priest, and goes to have a few words with him. The priest runs away and leaves the colony.

Realizing she can no longer stand alone, Amelia and Garrick go to New Amsterdam to ask the protection and blessing of its governor Petrus Stuyvesant. This being gained, they return to the colony, where Garrick must eventually leave to return to his sea-faring life. When he sails, Amelia is devastated to see him go, but soon the priest Garrick drove away returns. The Puritans have also made a colony in the area, called Danforth, but the land they chose is poor and they are jealous of Belle Haven's success, so they wish to take it over. The only way Belle Haven can survive is to have an absolutely scandal-free leader in charge of Belle Haven. But Amelia has just realized that she is pregnant with Garrick's child. Can she fight once more for her new colony before the other colony rolls over them and ousts her as leader?

This was a very short book, but a good one. Amelia and Garrick are strong, well-drawn characters who almost leap off the page despite the short amount of time that passes with their introduction. Their story is told in equally broad strokes, but in the mere six or seven months that pass during the book, we come to feel for them and hope that they can be together.

There is no single enemy or person who becomes Amelia and Garrick's nemesis, unless it is the Puritan council of Boston itself, as it seeks to bring Amelia back into the fold, first by marrying her off to Harkness, then sending a maddened and insane Harkness to bring her back to Boston. When that fails, they send the priest, Holling, to incite bad feeling against Amelia. And though Garrick drives them off, he returns again near the end of the book.

Amelia gains our admiration for her unwillingness to give up on her dreams or to compromise in establishing the kind of colony she wants to build. Garrick, who starts off looking like someone very unsympathetic to Amelia and her dream, redeems himself by shackling his own future to Amelia's and helping her realize her dreams. He even goes further by building a house for her where she will be able to live out her life. And, of course, by becoming her lover and helping her in all her conflicts with others. By the end of the book, you are torn by his leaving, and hope they will find a happy life together...

Which they do, of course. This is a romance novel, after all, and happy endings are assured. It's not a bad one, either, and well worth reading if you run across a copy.