Trader's Reward

This concluding volume of Anna Jacobs' Traders series moves between Europe, the Orient and the Swan River Colony in Australia. Set in 1871, it begins at the deathbed of Fergus Deagan's wife, who dies in childbirth. Her final request is that he take their children from Ireland to Western Australia, where his brother Bram lives, and that he marry again so the children will still have a mother's care.

Cara Payton has been cast off by her father after becoming pregnant. Her own baby is stillborn, and she sinks into despair until a request for a wet-nurse to care for a motherless infant gives her a reason to carry on. When Fergus proposes, she accepts. She respects him and is content to stay with the child she has come to love. During the sea voyage the two grow closer, but her past catches up with her and they face a serious crisis.

In Fremantle, Fergus and Bram, who have always been rivals, find it hard to get along. Bram is in financial difficulty, and there is no railway where Fergus can find engineering work. Can the brothers resolve their problems, and can the newcomers build a new life in a land far from the one they knew?