Publisher's Synopsis
Paula, while on vacation from her home in Los Angeles, is preparing to celebrate her birthday at a luncheon on the Gold Coast in Australia. Her husband is aboard an aircraft, which is flying into Coolangatta Airport on a flight from Melbourne, and he plans to meet her at the rendezvous. The date is 10 September, 1999, However, a traumatic event occurs to alter their carefully-constructed plans. Instead, Paula finds herself in Victorian Victoria, on the banks of the mighty Murray River where the paddle-steamers are plying their trade while the time-frame is one hundred and thirty-two years earlier in Australian history. There, Paula encounters Louisa, Sylvia and Elizabeth, along with Charles Lyndhurst. Oblivious to her own predicament, Paula follows closely the dramas that affect the lives of these people in the State of Victoria in 1867. Queen Victoria is the reigning monarch and she sends her second son on a visit to the far-flung colonies of her empire. With the arrival of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, on the first Royal Tour of the country, the citizens of Melbourne prepare to celebrate in style. As the Royal Tour progresses, the lives of Louisa and Charles are thrown into turmoil. Sylvia is left to ponder her future as her world collapses around her. Elizabeth watches the events that are unfolding within her family and, alarmingly, she witnesses history repeating itself before her eyes. With the arranged marriage between Louisa and Charles taking place, against the wishes of both parties, Elizabeth does not hold out much hope for a happy future for the couple. When the spirited, young Louisa meets the charming, devil-may-care Phillip Carstairs within weeks of her marriage to Charles, she falls in love with him. Their clandestine meetings are many and the plans that they make together have disastrous results for Louisa. At the same time, Charles is continuing his decade-long love affair with Sylvia while he demands total obedience from Louisa, who defies him every step of the way. In her twentieth-century world, Paula watches in fascination while wondering why this whole scenario appears very familiar to her. After all, she has a busy life of her own in the USA and she knows little about Australian history. As the new millennium is about to dawn in her real world, she knows that she should be focusing on her present life and her current family. Instead, she drifts in an out-of-body reality where the nurse, Gerard, appears. The nurse is guarded in the information that he releases to Paula when she questions him on what has occurred to bring her to this place and why she is all alone in the hospital setting. The familiarity of the scenes that are taking place with the Victorian Victorians are resonating with Paula as she fights for life in a hospital on the Gold Coast in a time-frame that is far removed from Victorian Victoria, and Melbourne in particular. Still, Paula stands watching, being but the silent observer to all that occurs in the lives of these people. It all seems oh-so-familiar!
