Bondsman

A thrown away boy with a damaged larynx from the gutters of London and a scrawny stowaway from ravaged Ireland become indentured servants to Lord Byron Trammel of Virginia in 1702. When the two immigrants land in the colonies, Will Channel is assigned to the stable where valuable Arabians are bred while Finnie Carroll, lately discovered to be a fair and lovely lassie although not a tamed one, is forced into a dress. Finnie protests her job as upstairs maid to the finicky French mistress of the grand house with Gaelic obscenities until she realizes she must choose between service and the backstreets of Norfolk. Working alongside and befriending black slaves known as the Belle family at La Belle Plantation, Will's and Finnie's fortunes are improved under the benevolence of the Trammels, and love blossoms between the unlikely pair. Their idyllic life turns to ruin when Jack Robbins, the lazy stablemaster, is upstaged by the strapping Will. And when his romantic overtures to Finnie are spurned, he vows to destroy their lives.

Ronald Blackshire, a greedy and malicious plantation neighbor who tortures his slaves, joins forces with the vengeful Robbins to gain control of La Belle. They commit murder and steal the contracts of Will and the Belles. As Blackshire's stolen chattel are taken away in chains and worked in the fields like dogs, Finnie volunteers to become Blackshire's housekeeper in order to keep a watchful eye on those taken from her. Blackshire, enamored with his beautiful new housekeeper, crosses Robbins, and puts a choice to Finnie: marry him and he will set free the Belles and allow Will to work in the stables with the horses. The shocking spoilt choice means she must make her husband hate her and prostitute herself to a fiend.