inkstainsdaydreams
Before Salem burned, Wethersfield bled ink.
In 1649, Lieutenant James Boosey died in the rich river silt of Connecticut Colony, leaving his widow Alice a three-acre home lot on Broad Street, a silver-hilted sword, and a family estate built on timber and grit. But in Puritan New England, a wealthy widow is prey.
Enter James Wakeley-a man who sues his neighbors as easily as he draws breath, with his eyes set firmly on Alice's land. When his aggressive courtship turns into a court battle, Alice plays a dangerous hand: forcing a lethal £100 prenuptial bond before walking down the aisle.
When the 1662 witch panic hits Hartford and Wakeley flees into Rhode Island exile under spectral accusations, Alice refuses to run. Living alone on Broad Street, she manages the estate, defies colony decrees, runs her own illicit cider trade, and fights off every legal attempt to steal her children's inheritance.
Based on actual 17th-century court records, The Forty-Pound Deed of Goodwife Alice is a gritty, atmospheric story of survival, property, and a woman who outsmarted the courts, the devil, and the men who tried to break her.