Age: 35 (Sept. 29, 1824)

Description: She’s average looking, brown hair, brown eyes, of French descent, 5’ 6", medium build, fair skin, hardworking and straight forward.

Father: Jacques Dupont

Grandmother: Silvia Chauvalier Dupont

Grandfather: Ettienne Dupont

Mother: Priscilla Everly Dupont

Grandmother: Drucinda Costeau Everly

Grandfather: Pierre Everly

Summary: Drucilla moved to Dreamville with her new husband Charles Bartlett to escape her past and make a new life by helping her husband run the lumber mill, but two days after they arrived Charles was killed in a mill accident. While theirs was a loveless marriage of convenience, she did miss him. She was determined that his dream of running a successful lumber mill was not going to die with him, so she was going to make Bartlett Mill a success.

Love Interest: None at the moment!

Maja
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Age: 36 (September 29, 1823)

Description: Above average size, 6’5", tall, blonde hair, blue eyes, well muscled and gentle in nature, a gentle giant. He’s not afraid of hard work, and he’s loyal to his friends.

Father: Unknown

Grandmother: Unknown

Grandfather: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Grandmother: Unknown

Grandfather: Unknown

Summary: The only family life he has ever known was at the orphanage he had lived at since he was a baby. He has spent his adult years drifting from town to town desperately searching for a place where he could put down roots. He thinks that he has found what he has been searching for in Drucilla and Dreamville. He works at the lumber mill as the foreman.

Love Interest: Drucilla

Josh
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INTRODUCING DRUCILLA!

Eight months ago, she had met Charles Bartlett, a man who knew her past and all her secrets yet still asked her to become his business partner and marry him. They made a pact with their marriage. He would help her to put her past and her reputation behind her, if she would do her best to be a good wife to him and support him in their new life.

Drucilla knew from the outset that it would be a loveless marriage, a marriage where they did not even share the marriage bed, but he was a good friend to her and that was all that mattered to her. To that end, Charles purchased a timber mill in a new town that had sprung up in Nebraska. It all happened so quickly that her head almost spun, her father was shot by a disgruntled gambler and her mother died shortly after being shot in the same flurry of shots. Charles took her to the nearest church, married her that day, and they set off for their new home that night. Their belongings were being packed by servants and forwarded on to their new residence.

Drucilla wasn’t sure what she expected but the town of Dreamville was like a breath of fresh air. The people there remained charming and friendly, not like the people of New Orleans who looked down their snooty noses at her, a common riverboat gambler and whore. In Dreamville, however, the gentlemen treated her with common courtesy and respect and the women were all openly friendly and charming, in fact for the first time in her life she had a friend. The Pony Express Cook Rachel Dunne had befriended her on their first day in town, and now she often visited the waystation just to pass the time with her new friend.

There was another first for her on their first day in Dreamville six months ago. When her husband had taken her to the Bartlet Mill to show her their family business, she had met the Chief Logger, Joshua Destone. Never had she believed the expression love at first sight, she thought love was a foolish thing dreamt up by lonely old women. Now she knew she was wrong. The first moment she laid eyes on Joshua she knew that she was in trouble.

She had not been prepared for the instant attraction she felt for this huge gentle man. However, she vowed to herself that she would not act on that attraction, she had promised Charles that she would be faithful to him, and he had given her the new start she had so desperately wanted, no needed, she would not renege on that agreement with him.

But it’s funny how the gods work. Two days after their arrival Charles was crushed when a huge log fell on him crushing him instantly. Leaving Drucilla a very rich widow. It wasn’t that she could ever be happy that her husband died, in fact she missed him every day. He was after all a dear friend as well as her husband.

Now however, nothing stood in her way, she and Joshua began a quiet and loving affair, she refused to marry him as he often asked her, wanting to have a decent mourning period for her husband. However, they began to court and indeed he spent several nights a week at her home, leaving well before sunup to stop suspicion being aroused by Drucilla’s neighbors.

Drucilla had told him all about her past and admitted her shame and loathing at the things she had done, but Joshua wouldn’t let her dwell on them insisting that none of it mattered now that they had found each other. She was determined that they would take their relationship slowly and uncover all the skeletons in her closest, and while they were there, they would make Bartlett mill into the best mill in the territory, a place that Charles would have been proud of.

INTRODUCING JOSHUA!

He had been left as a baby on the steps of the orphanage and had spent his childhood years as the odd one out in the orphanage, much bigger than the rest of the kids, he was too big to play happily with the little kids but not big enough to play with the older kids. He learned early to enjoy his own company and depend on his own ingenuity for a playmate.

He drifted from town to town as he matured and left the sisters at the orphanage taking many jobs but it soon appeared that his real talents lay in logging. His huge size and strength making him perfect for the heavy and often backbreaking work of a logger.

Joshua worked happily for the previous owners of the mill, but he had received a promotion to mill chief when Charles Bartlett took over and renamed the mill Bartlett Mill. He was more than happy to accept the promotion and equally happy to work for the easygoing but business like Charles.

He wasn’t prepared for the attraction he felt to the new Mrs. Bartlett when she arrived in town with her new husband. They were both even less prepared for the sudden and unexpected death of Charles when a huge log fell on him crushing his chest and killing him.

He soon realized that Drucilla and Charles had shared a marriage of convenience for them, and that while she missed Charles, it was not long before they stopped fighting their mutual attraction they shared, and began an affair that they would hide from the town for as long as they could.