Ocean's Trial — Demelza Carlton

Smuggled ashore by the kind widow Merry D'Angelo, Maria begins her new life in the colonial port city of Fremantle. With the help of a young fisherman named Tony, she fights to find her place among a people so different to her own. Yet danger lurks beneath the surface of the turbulent harbour waters as her past races to catch up with her; threatening her future and her friends, and forcing her to choose between her old love and the new. A tiny taste of what's in store: Merry bowed her head. "I understand. But what will you do? What work do you know?" "I know fish and I know the ocean. That is all," I said forlornly. For all my hopes, I already felt lost. Her world was still painfully new to me. "I think I can help you find a job. A job for a girl who knows fish and the ocean. But you will need a name. Your father's, your husband's...as I am Meryl D'Angelo, you must have a last name, too." "I can't tell you," I replied. "I'd hoped..." She laughed. "Speranza. Hope in Italian. If you won't tell me your real name, you will be Maria Speranza, the young fisherman's widow who lives in hope." She shooed me toward the door. "Go now and send the telegram. The sooner he hears you're alive, the sooner you'll be in his arms again." She squeezed past me, pulling on her gloves before donning a hat. "I need to speak to some friends to see if they can help you." Merry hurried out the front door. I had a goal, a hope for the future. And a name to go with it. Maria Speranza, the widow who lived in hope. And for the first time, I did.