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 Twelve-year-old
Sarah Kensington leads an idyllic life caring for the royal swans at the
Benedictine Abbey in Abbotsbury, Dorset. When her mother dies of
emphysema, Sarah's safe, familiar world is shattered. At the invitation
of cousin, Jane Long, Sarah and her father and older sister, Emily,
leave England to join the Stephen F. Austin expedition in Texas in 1821.
Sarah is swept into the changing world of the Texas frontier where
opportunity is as wide open as the Texas sky and freedom is as rampant
as a fever. Issues of slavery, water rights, and land acquisition create
tensions between the settlers and the Mexican government, especially for
Sarah's father who seeks to establish a law practice. Sarah becomes
toughened during the long, hard journey by wagon train from New Orleans
to San Antonio, yet becomes enraptured by Texas' beauty and contrasts.
"England was never like this," she tells her pet swan, Celina.
Still grieving over her mother's death, Sarah keeps alive her memory by
living in the special world of imagination and fairy tales they shared.
But she also remembers the promise she made to care for the royal swans.
She is resolved to keep her promise...no matter what it takes.
Sarah receives the support of Ki, Jane Long's thirteen-year old black
slave girl, and that of Maria White Wing, and elderly Indian servant.
Sarah also experiences her first love, in knowing Juan Santos (based on
Juan Seguin). Other support comes from the German naturalist, Karl
Bachman, who becomes part of the family as Emily's husband. And
with a growth and maturity honed by the frontier spirit, Sarah finds
happiness, establishes the swannery, and makes her home in Texas.
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