A Loyal Lass: A Story of the Niagara Campaign

A historical novel written in the early 20th century. Set along the Niagara frontier during the War of 1812, it follows spirited Marianne Reyburn as her American father and Canadian kin find themselves on opposing sides, testing family bonds and personal courage. The story blends domestic life, frontier adventure, and wartime peril, focusing on divided loyalties, friendship, and quiet acts of bravery. The opening of the novel introduces Marianne in the woods near Lewiston, where talk of war with Britain is in the air and a Yankee pedler sells her a curious Indian bracelet. Crossing the river to her French grandmother’s Canadian home, she learns her brother Royal has enlisted with General Brock’s forces, setting him against their American father. Back home, Marianne gently breaks the news to her father and soon witnesses the Battle of Queenston Heights; her father is wounded and—through Royal’s intervention—brought to the Canadian side, where Marianne and her mother go to nurse him. As she secretly plots his escape, Marianne falls into a bog, is rescued by young British soldier Jack Silverthorn, and is taken to his family’s farm, where she unexpectedly meets Royal and Jack’s kind sisters; tensions flare over wartime talk, but new friendships form as she spends the night under their roof.