RATING: GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
The ending of the book is a good resolution.
Linda and Mataka end up in the missionary school with Franz. Linda starts to see another man, more compassionate and understanding, and she feels drawn to him. Yet, she notices that Franz seems to like her but then he pulls away when she comes closer. Then Linda is surprised when a man appears. It is Fitz, who chance has taken him to the missionary school. Now Ftiz wants her back, and he says that Vera is now an actress in Wellington. Linda imagines that Vera must have found someone richer and dropped Fitz. Linda refuses to go with him, and Fitz threatens to go to the law and fight for Aroha's custody.
Franz appears after overhearing part of the conversation. He tells Fitz that he won't take Linda and Aroha, and the priest challenges to a game of blackjack, and if he wins, Linda will stay, and if Fitz wins, Linda and Aroha will go with him and he will also get the two expensive necklaces that Cat inherited. Linda does not like the idea of being the bounty, but she eventually agrees. Franz has a good memory and has a technique to count cards, and thanks to this technique he wins. Then Franz makes Fitz sign a document, granting Linda a divorce and forfeiting his right to his daughter.
Franz and Linda talk after Fitz leaves. Franz asks her what she meant when she told Fitz that Cat is her mother, and Linda explains that Ottfriend Brandman raped Cat, and she gave birth to Linda, but Ida and Cat agreed to raise the girls as twins. Franz feels relieved, and they declare each other their love.
Bill plans to rescue Carol and goes to talk to the army. Eru has been offered a job as an interpreter, and he wants to go after Mara. Bill and Eru go with a unit. The first talk to the chieftain of the village, and he denies having two white captives. The reality is that Mara and Carol are locked in a room, and Mara has found out recently that she is pregnant. When the soldiers go, Eru says that he believes that the women are there because it was clear that the chieftain was lying. The unit surround the fort, but Te Ari tie Mara and Carol and force them to follow him, using a gate at the back.
Eru and Bill ask for permission to continue searching the woods when the women are not found in the pa. A tracker goes with them, and he leads them towards the river. Te Ari has pushed the women into a barge on the river, but Carol falls and almost drowns. Bill manages to save her, and then Eru goes after Mara. He finds her and Te Ari in a cave. The two men fight, and when Eru is disarmed, he begs Mara to do something, and Mara grabs Te Ari's axe and hits him over and over again. Mara, though, refuses Eru, not recognising him as the tattoos all over his face remind her of his captor.
Mara and Carol are taken to Ida and Karl in Russell. Mara is lethargic, and even though Eru talks to Mara outside the window every night and plays the flute, but Mara doesn't respond. Then something terrible happens when Eru is arrested. Some warriors have accused him of murdering Reverend Voelkner. It is true that he was there, but he didn't participate. Jane and Te Haitara, who are back together after Chris recovered Rata Station, are very worried, and the lawyer tells them that this is revenge from the warriors because Eru is seen as having turned to the enemy. The whole family get together to help Eru, and Ida thinks that even Franz can testify that Eru saved him, what they need is someone testifying that Eru wasn't there, that is, something to lie.
When the trial is to take place, Mara, Cat, Carol and Franz travel there. Mara is to testify about what Eru did for her, but when Carol tells her that even if Eru goes to prison in a reduced sentence, there is the risk that the warriors will kill him. So it is Mara who lies and says that Eru was with her when Dr Voekner was murdered. Thankfully, Eru is acquitted and Mara finally acknowledges that she feels the same for him.
In the epilogue Carol and Bill get married, and at the wedding we discover that Chris has paid a small fortune for his divorce from Jane and for Linda's divorce as well. Cat and Linda are soon to marry Chris and Franz. Cat has had a baby son she has named Robin, and Mara has given birth to a girl called March. She and Eru are now happy together, and all the suffering of the last year is something that they still need to forget.
I loved the book but for me the thing that confused me was the many Maori names that I couldn't differentiate, so I couldn't remember the Maori warriors and what they did. Apart from that and the Americanism in the translation, I enjoyed reading the novel
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