Bound by Sally Gunning

Alice Cole is seven in 1756, when she makes the trip across the ocean from Britain to America. It's a tough journey for Alice and her family especially when her mother and two brothers die en route. Her father then sells her to John Morton as his servant until she's eighteen in order to pay his debts. Alice has a good life with Mr. Morton and his daughter, Nabby, who's three years older than Alice. Her life takes a turn for the worse when she's fifteen and moves with Nabby and her new husband, Emery Verley. Verley is an evil man and Alice really has no choice except to run away, even though she's breaking the law. She ends up in Cape Cod and is taken in by a widow who seems to know that Alice has had a hard life recently. Another of the widow's boarders is Ebenezer Freeman, who is very involved in pre-revolutionary politics. In a time of tumult and injustice, will Alice be able to overcome her circumstances? I enjoyed this historical novel about a young women's life in colonial times. It reminded me of the novels of Sandra Dallas and Lily by Cindy Bonner. Bound is also connected to Gunning's last novel, The Widow's War which was about the widow and Ebenezer Freeman.