![]() ![]() ![]() Everything is fine for a while, but an uprising of the Maori natives results in his wife and children being kidnapped and his home burned. In 1890 Henry Oades takes his wife, Margaret, and children to new Zealand when he is offered a work opportunity that is too good to pass up. They are devastated to find that Henry has left and set off to be reunited. Meanwhile, several years later, Margaret and the three surviving children are released from slavery after a small pox epidemic. ![]() Unable to cope with the grief of losing his wife and children, he ships out to San Francisco and starts a new life. He believes the body found in their burnt down house to be that of his wife Margaret. Henry distraught searches for months but is unable to find any trace. The family survive the sea voyage only to be kidnapped, in reprisal by a Maori tribe, while Henry is at work. ![]() His wife although reluctant feels duty bound to support her husband, who promises it is only for a 12 month stay. In1890, Henry Oades of the title is offered a post in Wellington NZ. I was surprised at the New Zealand setting in the first half of this book and it is, perhaps, because she is an American writer that she took a little licence with the kidnapping event, which would have been unlikely to occur in the 1890's, but it is a work of fiction. ![]()
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