William Hennessey: Bks 1 & 2

A few days later, he and William are booked on an immigrant ship bound for New Zealand.

When they board The Remittance , they discover William's father has booked them into steerage and instead of the allowance William was expecting he only has three hundred pounds to live on. John has even less money.

William decides his father has arranged things this way as some sort of test, or punishment, and he'll obey him and go to New Zealand.

John isn't sure about his decision to accompany William until he sees Daisy Hammond on the deck of The Remittance and sets about winning her heart.

During the voyage, William meets Charlotte. She's going to NZ to start a high-class brothel and is travelling with all the girls who will work for her. Book 2- The Claim. New Zealand, 1875. After leaving England to avoid criminal charges, William Hennessey hears gold has been discovered in the Ohinemuri.

He hopes to make his fortune by staking a claim on the Karangahake Mountain.

Then he meets Mere. She's beautiful, she's passionate. and everything about William and his plans to mine on the mountain sacred to the local iwi angers her.

Mere McGregor is half-Maori and half-Scottish and has never quite fit into either world.

She is quiet and observant, and watches in horror as her forefathers' land is taken, and there is nothing she or anyone can do about it.

William represents everything she is fighting. To her, he is entitled and spoiled, but he's also intriguing and tenacious in his pursuit of her.