In the Shadow of the River

If all the world''s a stage, Jacci will play her part. She only hopes her story does not turn out to be a tragedy.In 1881, Jacci Reed is only five years old when a man attempts to kidnap her from ...

If all the world''s a stage, Jacci will play her part. She only hopes her story does not turn out to be a tragedy.In 1881, Jacci Reed is only five years old when a man attempts to kidnap her from the steamboat her mother, Irena, works on. Badly wounded during the confrontation, Irena takes Jacci aboard the Kingston Floating Palace, a showboat tied up beside them. There, Jacci''s actor grandfather tends to her mother, and Jacci gets a first taste of the life she will come to lead.Fifteen years later, Jacci is an actress aboard that same showboat and largely contented with her adopted family of