Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest is inhabited by Native Americans when Isaac Ebey arrives in 1850 to become the first permanent settler. Although ambition and a sense of adventure motivated him to leave Missouri on the Oregon Trail, he is a farmer at heart and a lawyer by trade looking for a new, healthy home for his family. Sensitive and honest, he appreciates the Skagit people on the island who will become his neighbors.
Snetlum, a leader of the oldest village on the island’s Penn Cove, battles two fears: raids from northern tribes who steal women and children, and the encroachment of white settlers. When he meets Isaac Ebey, he believes that trustworthy settlers may be able to help protect his village from northern attackers.
Life on the island seems harmonious until Ebey must balance his time between his farm, the demands of a new territory, his wife’s failing health, and the aggressive actions of the first governor of Washington Territory. This historical novel is presented within a ghostly wrapper. After all, it is history that creates ghosts.
The early morning is cloudy with some gentle showers of rain until the mighty sun breaks through, shining in a bright sky; and along with it comes Isaac Ebey. He arrives home having caught a ride on a brig from Olympia to Penn’s Cove, the last part of a long, cold, wet trip, after a three-month absence; and when Ebey wraps his arms around Rebecca, and she says “my dear husband” three times into in his chest, he feels in his gut how much he has been missed. When he pulls back to look at her and sees clearly how pregnant she is, the length of his absence is also made clear.
“I have been praying for you, for us, nearly constantly,” he says. “I have a gift for you.”
“Nothing will seem like much of a gift now that we have the gift of you,” she says.
