Ten Thousand Miles — Catherine Marshall (1)

Nathaniel Armstrong and Sarah Roberts have grown up together in the small East Yorkshire village of Alderby, but fate tears them apart when Sarah is orphaned and sent into service at Ravenswood Hall. Nathaniel leaves Alderby to work on a farm in the Dales and the years pass. With childhood behind them, they meet again and realise the depths of their feelings for each other. Nathaniel asks Sarah to marry him and Sarah accepts.Their plans are shattered when Nathaniel is accused of compromising his employer's daughter. If he refuses to marry Gilda Garrowby, her father threatens both Nathaniel and his family with financial ruin.But someone is watching over the pair. Old Eleni the gypsy foretells their future together and reveals to Sarah her gypsy heritage. It becomes clear to Sarah where her gift of clairvoyance comes from-Eleni herself, Sarah's grandmother.In an attempt to keep the two together, Eleni persuades them to participate in a traditional gypsy betrothal ceremony, but afterwards Sarah and Nathaniel quarrel bitterly and go their separate ways. Sarah, falsely accused of stealing from her employer, flees south to London where life becomes a struggle to survive on the streets. Nathaniel finds himself on board a ship bound for Australia, dressed in the garb of an escaped convict. Life in the young colony is harsh and he despairs of ever returning to his native land, let alone achieve his mission to reclaim Strathvoe, the Armstrongs' ancestral home.Ten thousand miles lies between them. Grinding poverty holds them captive. Will Eleni's prophecy prove true, or are the two doomed to live their lives apart?