Journey — Stephen H. Foreman

New Mexico Territory, 1817. Rueben Moon, resourceful son of a white man and a Native mother, is riding through the desert as a storm approaches on the horizon. Faintly in the distance and growing louder as he approaches, he hears as an insistent mewling and discovers not the calf that he imagined, but an abandoned infant girl. Rueben rescues the child, and brings her to a community of Apaches, who raise her as their own. She is the given the name Sojournercalled Journeyand grows to become a strong and spirited young woman.

London, late eighteenth century. Adolescent Esau Burdock survives on the back-alley streets of London with a combination of wit, gall, and sheer luck. But his luck runs out during a shady business deal and when offered the choice of hanging or exile to distant, exotic New Orleans, Esau chooses the latter. There he finds success and fortune in the burgeoning slave trade, and carves himself a sphere of wealth and power. He falls in love with the beautiful slave Livy, only to kill her one night months later in a fit of passion. Distraught, he leaves New Orleans for the Western Territories, unaware that Livy s infant daughter, rescued by friends, is making the same journey.
Years later, Esau and Journey are brought together, and after learning of her maternal parentage, Esau quickly becomes obsessed with Journey. When she resists, Esau has her declared a runaway, and Journey, aided again by Rueben, is forced to flee into the desert for her life, and more importantly, for her freedom.

Brimming with action and panoramic in scope, in Journey Foreman provides a breathtaking narrative with a heroine you'll never forget.