Canadian young lady Charlotte Carruthers shows us her much-reduced family home and farm in the fall of 1837. THE HEIRESS AND THE WOODSMANis set during a time of political turbulence, when few people could take prosperity or health for granted.

With only one elderly servant left, Charlotte has to leave her ill father and find her brother Simon. He went to homestead in the backwoods, which are referred to as the bush. Their near neighbour, Deacon Cole, wants to buy up their land for clay pits, and nobody seems able to stop him. Toronto is settled and class-conscious, and at first Charlotte disguises herself as a boy to avoid speculation. Her good mare Scarlett draws attention on the road, and she has to ask for help from a carter when the mare throws a shoe.

Joshua Robertson is despondent after selling his year’s grain for less than its worth. Prices to farmers are kept low so merchants can prosper. If he has enough money, he can repay his indentured stepbrother Henry’s debt. An offer of pay from the travelling young woman to guide her seems like the best chance he's had all year. Joshua's home in the bush is a few days away given the state of the roads, and Simon's is even further.

This romance is carefully drawn to present various sides of any situation. Some children are woefully used as underpaid workers, but an indenture is surprisingly a relatively good deal, because the master is responsible for training the apprentice and must take care of them as part of this joint investment. We don’t get much of the underlying politics of the day, but people clearly state their loyalties, though no side seems to be doing anything to aid the poor. Rebellion is brewing against British rule, and these families are only one generation away from being emigrants.

I love the descriptions of travel in these difficult years. The forest roads were barely there from one year to the next, with flat trails made of logs to stop carts from sinking, and ice-covered marshes adding to the danger. While obliged to share a cabin, Charlotte and Joshua keep everything respectable, so this can be read by Young Adults or Adults. The late arrival of a character called Ballantine connects this story to another by the author Christine Hill Suntz. Anyone of prominence knew everyone at the time, so it’s quite natural to see a man of means appear in two novels. THE HEIRESS AND THE WOODSMAN is good for horse lovers and those who enjoy historical romances. I will look for more by this excellent writer.