The Candlemaker's Woman

When the barbarians of Germania fled the Huns and stormed across the frozen Rhine at midnight, New Years Eve, AD406, the western world changed nearly overnight. Suevi, Vandals, and Alans swarmed into Gaul, joining the Franks and Burgundians already there, and the old Roman Empire crumbled. Melia, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, is sold as a slave to an abusive candlemaker in Gaul by her family as they flee from the Huns. She survives the cruelty of her owners, excels at making...
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When the barbarians of Germania fled the Huns and stormed across the frozen Rhine at midnight, New Years Eve, AD406, the western world changed nearly overnight. Suevi, Vandals, and Alans swarmed into Gaul, joining the Franks and Burgundians already there, and the old Roman Empire crumbled. Melia, a girl on the cusp of womanhood, is sold as a slave to an abusive candlemaker in Gaul by her family as they flee from the Huns. She survives the cruelty of her owners, excels at making beautiful tapers and votives, and falls in love, eventually using her skills and cunning to save her family. But will she ever recover the love of her life, the father of her son? Her story imagines how one family, forced from their home by violence and hunger, endures one of the most disruptive and transformative events in history.