National Network for Equitable Library Service

A new life in Canada! What could be better? Plenty of land to farm and even gold to be found in the hills! Well…except Katherine’s parents aren’t farmers. Having spent everything on sailing from England to Canada and setting up their homestead, they’re struggling to make ends meet. In fact, Katherine’s going to have to sell her horse because the cost of keeping her is just too high. And as for Emma, the promise of gold is nothing but bad luck. Her father left her and her mother back in England while he joined the gold rush. Now her beloved mam has died and Emma’s been forced to travel to Canada all alone on a brideship, after a dad she can’t forgive. Even worse, he thinks he’s got just the solution to cheer her up. He buys her a horse to ride! Katherine can hardly bear to give up her beloved Nugget to a girl who’s clearly ungrateful for her good fortune and has no desire to learn to ride. Emma, ashamed of her disability that means she can’t ride sidesaddle, is desperate to avoid taking riding lessons from a stuck-up girl who obviously just wants her horse back. Emma and Katherine are thrown together more and more as each girl’s home situation becomes more desperate. Can Nugget help them to solve their problems for good? Set against the majestic landscape of 1860s BC, this is a story of ingenuity, courage, friendship – and the love of a horse.