A Historical Novel by Vicki Stirm

Lord Jeffery Cambridge, nineteen, is learning how to run the Virginia plantation he grew up on. His older brother, Lord Stephan, has left to head a militia company. His younger brother, Lord Jacob, lives on the plantation with him.

With battles earlier that spring in Boston, Lady Mathilde Weiss, twenty-four, has been busy assisting her father, a physician. After an incident with a scraggly soldier, her parents fear for her safety.

When Mathilde’s friend asks her to come and visit, she decides to temporarily leave the turmoil in Boston. A dinner and dance brings together Mathilde and Jeffery. After a fox hunting accident, she finds herself taking care of his injuries. Despite the fears of heartbreak, Mathilde finds herself falling in love with Jeffery. However, the beating and death of one of his slaves threatens to drive them apart.

She receives a letter from her sister telling her of the danger her family now faces in Boston. Mathilde feels torn between her new love and the love of her parents far away.
Will she accept the love of a slave-holding planter much younger than herself, or will she deny her heart and return to her family despite the danger of a possible war?

"The Journey" is available through Author House Publishing. It can be purchased online in book or in E-Book format.  Un-autographed copy:
Best Price: $14.95 USD plus shipping.

ISBN 9781438964348

Other Bookstore Price: $17.99 USD
(Amazon, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, etc)

Autographed copy: $20.00 USD (Price includes sales tax, if in Indiana) Media Mail Shipping: free in the US (contact me for outside US). You will receive an autographed copy of my book plus a nice bookmark!

Vicki Stirm lives in a small town in north central Indiana. She is married and shares a house with a husband, two teenage boys and a cat.

She has a degree in Forestry (majoring in Forest Management) and works in the Horticulture Department at Purdue University. She was a research technician for many years and now works as a lab instructor and organizer for an introductory horticulture course.

Vicki loves to sing and is in two groups at her church. Reading is also a big passion of hers and has been since she was in first grade.

She liked history some when she was young, but didn’t like history in high school! She became more interested in it when a former friend introduced her to a re-enacting festival, The Feast of the Hunter’s Moon. She eventually became more interested in history around her. It became more exciting to her when she thought about the lives of people who lived in the past, not just names and dates of events.

She became more involved in re-enacting when her older son (at age 8 ½) began to play the bagpipes in the 42nd Royal Highlanders of Lafayette, Indiana, an 18th century re-enactment band. They have traveled all over the Midwest and some out east. She is also a member of the board of directors for the organization.

This novel is her first and she is already working on the continuation of Jeffery's life adventures.

Contact Vicki at: contact@vickistirm.com
Mathilde's Silver Filagree Heart Neclace Available for Purchase. 
Please contact: contact@vickistirm.com

42nd Royal Highlanders
Colonial Williamsburg
Tippecanoe County Historical Association
The Authors Attic    A Novel Experience in Jewelry
Thomas Duncan Community Hall  

From Chapter 1

An Invitation....

He woke in the pre-dawn. It was the time when everything was of varying tints and shades of gray, when there were yet no shadows. It was a time of transition; just before the sun pushed above the horizon washing everything with vibrant colors of the new day. 
There was a bit of chill in the air. Jeffery had left the windows open last night when he went to bed; his bedchamber had been very hot and stuffy. It was early September now, the days would still be hot, but the nights showed promise of the autumn to come. 
A male cardinal was sitting in the tree that grew outside the window. He was announcing to the world that he was now the proud father of three new baby chicks. As much as Jeffery liked the bright red birds, the proclamation at this hour of the day was a bit annoying. 
Slipping out of bed, he padded across the floor to the east window. The breeze touched his bare skin, causing the hairs to stand on end and his body to be covered with gooseflesh. He closed the window and also the one facing to the north. He climbed back in bed and covered the lower half of his body with the sheet. Sinking down in the feather mattress, he slowly drifted back to sleep.
 
There she was again, that mysterious woman who visited his dreams. She was a bit older than Jeffery, he could tell. This time she was sitting on a blanket with a food basket sitting next to her. She was wearing a blue gown. Some tendrils of her golden hair had escaped the confines of her cap and were hanging down the sides of her oval-shaped face. Her lips were full. She had a delicate nose. Her eyes… her eyes were an incredible sky blue and exactly the same color as his. 
She gestured for him to join her on the blanket. He did and ended up lying down on his back, looking up at the sky. She leaned over to talk to him and he could feel her warm breath on his bare chest. How did he end up with his shirt off? He wondered. 
Then suddenly she was gone and he was awake again, heart racing.
The warmth he had felt was actually the sunlight streaming through the east window, stretching all the way across the room to his bed. He had forgotten to close the curtain after he had shut the window. He let the warmth wash across his body, and reminisced about the mysterious woman.

Copyright 2009 - The Journey by Vicki Stirm