Elean's Story — Bernadette Joyce

The Effects of Henry's Cage. (A dramatic love story.) 1863-1872.

Elean Cameron makes a life changing decision and becomes companion to Caroline Roseville and tutor to her three children. They are crossing the globe, leaving Scotland for New Zealand. Little does she know that Caroline's husband, Henry, disillusioned as a young child, has built a cage around his feelings, a cage of resentment, deceit, lies and bitterness. Soon she will be trapped in this terrifying cage. Alone in a strange country, she discovers she must find the strength to help herself and escape that cage.

The Effects of Henry's Cage unfold at a time when early settlers sought to make a new life for themselves in the Colonies. Dunedin, set in the province of Otago, on the East Coast of the South Island of New Zealand, is an example of what the settlers came to and what they could achieve in a few years. Dunedin was fifteen years old when Henry arrived in 1863. It was the time of the Otago Gold Rush. His wife Caroline, his three children and Elean Cameron, arrived seven years later, at a time when Maori who had fought in the North Island Land Wars, had been captured and sent to Dunedin Prison. Both these events and many more play a part in the story. This is a book of adventure, drama, friendship and romance.