Wheels of Destiny Book

Wheels of Destiny by Miki Curran Preview Wheels of Destiny a novel which spans the years 1826- 1889, is set in County Donegal, on the northwest coast of Ireland and in New York, U.S.A. This is a story of Sara Ward Briefly, it tell the story of Sara Ward? her youth on an offshore island, her encounters with Charles Hamilton, the local landowner. Her brief liaison with Hamilton is terminated when he is forced, for financial reasons, to enter a marriage of convenience. Heart-broken, alone and pregnant, Sara accepts an offer of marriage from Patrick O?Doherty, a tenant on the Hamilton estate. Their first born, Conor, will be brought up as Patrick?s son. Conor and his three siblings are reared in a tenant cottage on Hamilton?s estate. Their brief affair is all but forgotten. When the Great Famine of 1845 ravages County Donegal, Sara watches as two of her children die of famine fever. When her youngest child falls victim to the fever, Sara turns to the only man who can help her? Charles Hamilton. She doesn?t get the help she needs. With the death of this child, only Conor survives. The deaths of the children draws Sara?s younger brother, Peadar into conflict with the landlord and he joins the local land agitators. Hamilton's henchman, Captain Dunning will hang her brother, if he catches up with him. And catch him he does. But Sara will not let them hang her young brother like a dog. Conor discovers a girl, Betty, hiding out in the old tower. She appears lost but no one knows where she comes from. After a while she comes to live in their house. They become great friends and somewhere along the way, Conor falls for her. But it will be many years before they can be together. The agitators burn the landlord?s manor and during reprisals, many cottages are attacked including Sara?s. Conor, on the run along with other activists, learns that Sara and Patrick have been killed by the patrols. Conor knows that he is in grave danger. He must escape. He, along with his friends Betty and Daragh sail from Derry to America. In New York, after initial struggles, they make a new life, separately. Betty finds this easier as she holds a secret that would destroy their friendship and would see Conor sailing home to danger on the next available ship. She comes into an inheritance and becomes successful in her own right. As the years pass, they meet less and less frequently, but never quite losing touch. Conor studies law and joins a large bank near Wall Street. He secretly marries Christine Winthrop, and eventually succeeds his father-in-law as head of the bank. But it is more than a decade later when the name Hamilton crops up, like a specter out of the past to haunt him. He will go back to Ireland. He must. There are scores he must settle. The name Hamilton re-awakens his buried feeling of hatred for the Landlord, who was, he believes, responsible for destroying his family in Ireland. Now it is within his grasp to destroy this Hamilton with the stroke of a pen, crushing once and for all the mammoth shipping and real estate company, which that family had built up over the centuries. He returns to Ireland to right the wrongs of old. He discovers to his astonishment that his mother is still alive. And the tenants on the Hamilton estate slowly realise who their new ?landlord? is! But as Conor returns to his old cottage, someone is hiding in the tower and is waiting for him to make his appearance. The gun is loaded and the gunman has a good aim. Through sheer luck, Conor escapes death once again. It is soon afterwards that Conor learns to his dismay that the ship on which Betty is due to return from America, The New Amsterdam has been lost at sea. But just when he least expects it, Conor has the greatest surprise of all waiting for him.Read More