Madam Muldoon's Garden

1866 Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland

What would Christ write about her in the dirt? A Mary Magdalene message?

Eighteen-year-old Orla Muldoon’s hidden life is nearing exposure. But America will free her of all conventions and from being an outcast. Created a misfit with her peach-colored hair, and disturbing eyes, God and the Saints chuckled at her misery. Her loving da said God blessed her with a clever mind, which was better than beauty. He’d never been hideous.

Enticing rumors about America portray a country free of most restraints. Women run their own establishments. She will invest all her hard-earned coins in a successful business. If God doesn’t suddenly notice her existence and strike her dead first.

John Murphy is content with his situation. He’d carved out a perfect, peaceful life for himself. No one suspects his identity. The men he works with didn’t ask and don’t care who he is. Greed for gold blinds those simpletons. Not him.

An outcast young woman without beauty, but with scathingly brilliant plans.
The incognito lake freighter worker with a wounded soul and a guarded heart.
A wild iron-ore harbor mining town on Lake Superior, unaware of its fate.

Book 2, in Those Resilient Muldoon’s series shows how our best-laid plans don’t compare with destiny or God’s fathomless ideas