The year 1818. Francesca Le Pont and Richard Holder are no longer separated by one of the great seven seas of the known world. But will the new transport technology of the early industrial revolution – well-organised (but still horse-drawn) coach lines, magnificent canals and steam packet ships - be sufficient to bring them together within the British Isles? Or will new loves ensure that they choose to stay apart? This second book in the Francesca and Richard series is, naturally enough, set in the latter days of the Hanoverian Regency. It is a gazetteer of life lessons for the two protagonists as they both enjoy and endure new adventures in Lancashire, Leicestershire, Kent, Liverpool, Bristol, and London. Having crossed the Atlantic Ocean independently, the star-crossed pair are married (but not to each other) and still struggle to find happiness. Other characters from the first book in the series reappear: such as the calm and forgiving Jane Fortune, and her feisty niece, Clara, who both grow in independence of mind as the tale progresses, as well as Laura Holder, Richard’s patient, but increasingly self-assertive, Lancastrian wife. Many readers will be pleased to become reacquainted with Laura’s business partner, the handsome and enigmatic Martin Lee, and the Rhode-Island-born lawyers, Godfrey and Henry Cleveland. As time marches on, various adventures of the spirit and the heart draw the leading characters into contact with new allies such as the entrepreneurial Kat Boseley, Clara’s adventurous friend, Rebecca Putt, plus the bohemian Ingram sisters from Kent (Francesca and Judith) in a series of important life episodes. Just like its predecessor, Francesca and Richard: No Other Gods , this novella, Meetings and Partings , deals with the themes of love, friendship, family and equality at a time in history when both Europe and the wider world were recovering from the catastrophe of the Napoleonic Wars.