Eva and Henry

Book excerpt: Its 1886, and the Cape Cod South Wellfleet is stirring back to life after a long, cold winter. Strong-willed Eva Paine has always admired her dashing neighbor, Captain Henry Smith, and as fruit trees blossom, she abandons thoughts of a university education and arranges her own marriage. Evas wedding day is bittersweetshe bids her dear parents and brother good-bye and moves down the lane to Henrys family homestead. There she eagerly enters the realm of marital relations by night, and by day she practices the art of housekeeping under the watchful eyes of her new mother-in-law Eva accepts the joys and disappointments of her marriage with a unique combination of faith, good humor and forgiveness. She is soon in charge of all household affairs while Henry is out to sea, but is then expected to slip back into submission upon his every return. Motherhood seems elusive, even though Eva strongly desires to bear a child. Motivated by the alternating forces of passion and loneliness, Eva pushes towards the modern machine age as Henry insists upon continuing in a dangerous traditional profession. Their fiery relationship swings like a wind-blown weathervane between bliss and crushing pain Eva and Henry, A Cape Cod Marriage, transports the reader back in time to the Cape Cod of the late nineteenth centurya period of great social and economic upheaval. The novel will draw you firmly into the challenging lives of real people, and their story will remain with you long after youve finished reading. Be sure to visit www.EvaandHenry.com for photographs and more information about the time period, location, and the characters.