Finding True North

by Sandra Piotrowski

     In 1884 Seattle, Washington, young Harriet McKenna is in desperate straits. After her parents are killed in a mysterious explosion, she's left to fend not only for herself but for her two, much younger siblings. With no resources save her wit, her virtue, and a questionable map to a mining claim located hundreds of miles north, Harriet is forced to take drastic action when an unsavory businessman decides Harriet is just the bride for him.

     To escape a fate which could be, quite literally, worse than death, Harriet uses her virtue as collateral on a loan from a local madam. With six months to repay double the amount borrowed or working off her debt in a decidedly un-virtuous manner, Harriet escapes bringing her siblings, children she barely knows and doesn't particularly like, on a tempestuous journey through frontier British Columbia.