Rita Sorensen

By the Tall Oak Rita Sorensen

Marseille, France 1725, during the reign of Louis XV Antoine DePue, a clerk for the Oak Forest Commission in France, returns after a two week honeymoon and finds his workplace empty. Taken to the police station by one of the King?s men, he is thrown into a holding cell, falsely accused of stealing money from the Commission. Antoine?s Foreman makes a surprise appearance and insists he should escape to the French colonies until the investigation is over. Panic-stricken, he stows away on a ship bound for Quebec, where the real adventure begins in New France. By the tall oak, he meets the Potawatomi, the French, the British and the American colonists. Together, they struggle with the harsh realities of living in the wilderness. Try as they might, tensions grow amongst them, as they contend with taxation, rights to bear arms, personal freedoms, land rights, immigration and revenge. They are pushed to the brink, which ultimately leads to the siege of Fort Detroit in 1763.