Janeen Ann O'Connell

The Conviction of Hope Janeen Ann O'Connell

When James Bryan Cullen takes on convict transportee Elizabeth Bartlett in 1796 as a housekeeper, his challenge is to convince her that life on Norfolk Island is worth living. But how do you come back from being wrongly accused of a crime, then exiled to the other side of the world? He is thirty-two years older, transported on the First Fleet, long a free man, a constable, a landowner. She's pregnant, her life such as it was, in tatters. With nothing to lose, Elizabeth settles into an existence as a convict slave, waiting for her master to expect more than cleaning and cooking. But is Cullen the gentle soul he appears to be, and in a society that treats her as worthless, should Elizabeth dare to hope?