Adventures of Arabella and the Mysterious Tree

Book excerpt: Arabella is the only daughter of Baron Arthur Leon Wellington, and she is the heir of the Wellington dynasty. Her mother, the baroness, died giving birth to her, and the baron still mourns for his late wife, going on eleven years. So to deal with the loss of his wife, the baron keeps busy ten months out of a year, living in other lands, promoting and selling his commercial enterprises, textile and livestock from his estate, and among other business enterprises in other kingdoms. The baron realizes that his time is running out to salvage his dwindling relationship with his daughter, whom he leaves in the care of her governess and the head housekeeper of his castle. The baron's daughter, Arabella, will turn eleven years old this year, and little does she know that for every fifth generation of the Wellington heirs, a huge mysterious, glittery white tree appears on the Wellington Castle grounds among the tall trees next to the castle. When a Wellington baronesses every five generations dies giving birth to a girl, the mysterious, glittery white tree appears shortly after the girls turn eleven years old. Today is Arabella's eleventh birthday, and soon the mysterious tree will appear on the castle grounds. The reason the mysterious, glittery white tree appears is explained by her fifth-generation ancestor, who sends her a scroll in a small golden box that is under the mysterious, glittery white tree. No one can see this mysterious tree but Arabella, and the Wellington girls to whom the mysterious tree appeared after they turned eleven years old, the ones who lost their mothers, the baronesses, after giving birth to them. The ancestor, a female who also lost her mother, the baroness, after giving birth to her, is Arabella's fifth-generation great-grandmother, Baroness Mary Ann Wellington Armstrong. In the scroll she sends to her, the ancestor tells Arabella she is destined to go on four separate journeys, goodwill missions, that she also went to after turning eleven years old, to help an oppressed people who are waiting for the stranger to arrive. This has been foretold, and she will rescue them from their dire situation. But at the same time, Arabella, as her ancestors, the baronesses, before her, will have the greatest adventures in her lifetime and will have lasting memories of people she will grow to love on each of her journeys and, through the trials and perils she goes though in each journey she undertakes, will make her strong in faith. She will also gain values that will benefit her and others for the rest of her life. Also, according to Arabella's ancestor's handwritten scroll, no one in the castle will know that she is gone, because each journey will last a moment there at the Wellington Castle; however, each journey Arabella goes on, while she is in the distant lands, will last up to eleven months. It was the same for the other Wellington girls the mysterious tree appeared to after they turned eleven years old, the ones who lost their mothers, the baronesses, during childbirth. When Arabella realizes she has the opportunity of a lifetime to see great, fantastic adventures on her journeys and goodwill missions to help others in need, she decides it beats sitting in the old castle, waiting for her father to get over her mother's death and return to her at the Wellington Castle more permanently as she is growing up, because she wants her father to be with her. She is indeed looking forward to her four journeys, and her first journey is about to begin.