Jacqueline Friedland - Trouble the Water

will seize readers from the first page and not let go.

Kirkus Reviews

With compelling characters, a charming peek into Charleston society, a heart-racing romance, rich historical detail, and an epilogue that will have you holding your breath, Friedland has written a well-crafted novel that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.

Susie Orman Schnall, award-winning author of The Subway Girls, The Balance Project, and On Grace

Friedland is a modern Bronte sister remixed with Kathleen Grissom or Leila Meacham. Trouble the Water is the riveting story of Abby, who travels across the sea, fleeing Liverpool, poverty, and an unsavory uncle, for Charleston, where a wealthy friend of her father, Douglas, lives. Douglas has pledged himself to the fight to end slavery, and for that, he has made the ultimate sacrifice. Abby fights inner demons and tries to find her place in Charleston high society while her brooding guardian reconciles the past and returns to his beloved cause. Lovers of Civil Warera historical fiction will rejoice at Friedlands triumphant novel of love, friendship, and the most important issues of the day.

Bethany Ball, author of What to do About the Solomons

The complicated history of the antebellum South comes alive in Friedland's debut novel and offers readers an exciting and fast-paced literary journey that explores complicated relationships, the importance of friendship, and the necessary power of love.

Kris Radish, best-selling author of A Dangerous Woman from Nowhere

With a plucky heroine, a dashing hero, and the backdrop of the clandestine abolition movement in the antebellum South, Jacqueline Friedland masterfully weaves a tale full of passion and honor, duty and survival, evil and the beauty of basic human decency. Trouble the Water will make your heart pound and swell, and keep you reading well into the night. Highly recommended!

Loretta Nyhan, author of I'll Be Seeing You, All the Good Parts, and Digging In

In a narrative tapestry woven of brilliant threads of history and drama, Jacqueline Friedland introduces her readers to seventeen-year-old British-born Abigail Milton; her generous but reluctant benefactor, Douglas Elling; and the complex world of antebellum Charleston. The evil of slavery, the nascent abolitionist movement, and the courage of an operative of the underground railroad are explored against the background of the vanished world of debutante cotillions, social intrigue, and the slow maturity and melding of skillfully drawn protagonists. Friedlands research is impeccable, her writing fluid. Trouble the Water is that rare pedagogic novel that engages as it teaches.

Gloria Goldreich, author of The Bridal Chair

TROUBLE THE WATER

Copyright 2018 Jacqueline Friedland

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Published by SparkPress, a BookSparks imprint,
A division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC
Tempe, Arizona, USA, 85281
www.gosparkpress.com

Published 2018

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 978-1-943006-54-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-943006-55-7 (e-bk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959097

Book Design by Stacey Aaronson

All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

To Jason
For always being sure

1

D ouglas urged his horse onward at a feverish pace, gripped by panic that his wife might have been taken, or his daughter. The evenings vacant streets worked in his favor as the animal tore across the cobblestones, racing furiously toward his estate. The horse huffed and spat, sweating into the moonlight, as Douglas struggled to focus on speed, rather than on his dread. Rounding the corner onto Lightbourne Street, where candlelight emanated from the windows of quiet houses, he had the sudden thought that it couldnt be today. Whatever that distasteful man, Wilson Bly, meant by the threat, Douglas told himself, it wouldnt be this very same day when he had only just been alerted to the possibility of danger. He began to relax slightly, feeling added relief now that he was so close to home. He eased up on the horse, slowing to a trot and patting the animals hide in recognition of its exertion.

He and the horse continued east at a lighter pace, and Douglas inhaled deeply, trying to calm his racing heart. As the humid air filled his lungs, he caught the scent of smoke, sudden and sour. His alarm returned afresh, beastly in its force. Digging his heels into the horses sides, he urged the animal to resume its breakneck pace. They barreled across the remainder of Lightbourne, and Douglas began to detect the din of disaster, shouts, and clamor from afar. As the horse cut onto Meeting Street, Douglas was greeted by a vision that would terrorize him the rest of his days.

The Elling estate was alight against the dark night in roaring, spitting flames. Fire was bursting forth from the east side of the house, licking its way up the walls, reaching its hands sky-ward, like crackling, roaring calls of prayer. There were people running every which way, bodies emerging and disappearing behind the fog of smoke in a frenzied crush as they tried to help manage the fire.

Douglas searched the crowd for his family as he rode onward, forcing the horse toward the fire. Sarah! Cherish! They could still be inside! He shouted into the air of the maddened crowd around him. At the perimeter of the property he jumped from his horse, still screaming as he rushed toward the flames. Sarah! Cherish!

No, Mr. Elling! The family butler ran out from the masses, from the darkness, and grabbed Douglass coattails, trying to hold him where they stood at the edge of the drive.

Jasper! Oh, thank God! Where are my girls? Douglas shouted over the popping and crackling of the fire.

Please, Mr. Elling, there is nothing we can do now. Come with me, to safety. Jasper pulled Douglass arm, trying to move him back toward the street, toward the faceless crowd of onlookers.

No, take me to Sarah! Douglas shouted again. Where are they? His voice was eclipsed by the sound of roof crumbling into the house below it.

Mr. Elling, I am so sorry! Jasper leaned close and shouted into Douglass ear to be heard over the commotion.

The market! I was out at the market! He shouted that again, as if his prior whereabouts were the main focus.

I am so sorry, sir! Jasper was repeating himself, his bursting words nearly meaningless to Douglas. Though if the man was shouting, Douglas reasoned, Sarah and Cherish must be safe. People didnt shout at times of death. There was no comfort in shouted words.

Where are they? Douglas pressed, his eyes searching the darkness.

Sir, they didnt make it out.

Douglas looked blank faced at Jasper. Then with a sudden start, he began running toward the house again.

No, Mr. Elling! Jasper shouted, racing behind Douglas.

A male house servant appeared from out of the bedlam, catching Douglas by the arm.