Beneath an Italian Sky (An American Heiress #2) by Stacy Henrie

 BENEATH AN ITALIAN SKY
--1908--

American heiress Clare Herschel made what she hoped was a love match when she married the handsome, witty Emmett Markham, the Earl of Linwood. A little over a year into her marriage, though, Clare finds herself wintering in Sicily—alone. She is sure the mild climate is the answer to avoiding another miscarriage and Emmett’s apparent indifference, so she’s determined to remain in Italy as long as possible. The last person she expects to show up at the villa is her husband, especially when Emmett confesses he’s there to convince her to return to England.

As the only surviving son of a marquess, Emmett has done everything his father has asked of him—even agreeing to run for a seat in the House of Commons. However, this latest task comes with a nearly impossible caveat. He must convince his wife Clare to come back to England with him in order for them to appear to be a happy couple for his political campaigning. Emmett isn’t confident Clare will agree to the plan, though, not when she seems to want nothing to do with him or the life they’d begun building before she abruptly left him for Italy.

When a massive earthquake strikes Messina, Sicily, claiming the lives of thousands, Clare and Emmett must set aside their mutual misgivings about their marriage in order to survive and lend a helping hand to others. But in the wake of the destruction, they begin to realize they’ve been given a chance to decide if their love is stronger than the upheavals of the past.

This book deals with miscarriage and having to cope with it while trying to keep a marriage together. This couple seemed to still love each other, but kept things from one another, which made their marriage weaker in ways.  As she gets pregnant for the 3rd time, she moves to Italy to keep her pregnancy a secret and that it would be more successful in a more temperate climate.   

But things happen & they are forced to move through events together.  The Messina Earthquake was a real event. Posted below is an article I found on it.  Looking over pictures I also found showing the devastation of the event, I couldn't imagine going through that & having to wait to be rescued or helped. 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rescue-messina-earthquake/

On December 28, 1908, at approximately 5:20am, Europe's most powerful earthquake shook southern Italy. Centered in the Messina Strait, which separates Sicily from Calabria, the quake's magnitude equaled a 7.5 by today's Richter scale. Moments after the quake's first jolt, a devastating tsunami formed, causing forty-foot waves to crash down on dozens of coastal cities. 

The Messina quake was undeniably the most destructive to ever hit Europe. Most of southern Italy's cities lost as many as half their residents that morning. The population of the city of Messina alone — 150,000 — was reduced to only hundreds; the total death toll throughout Italy was estimated at nearly 200,000. Accounts of shaking and aftershocks were reported throughout Sicily. Signs of the jolt even appeared in Washington, D.C., where the day's crude technology picked up signals of the disaster. 

Those who survived the quake faced the bleakest of realities. Their homes were destroyed, their family members were dead, and the cities around them were reduced to rubble. The Italian government relocated many of the Messina survivors to new cities within Italy. Others were forced to emigrate to America. In 1909 a cargo ship, the"Florida" carried 850 such passengers away from Naples. The "Florida" would transport the survivors to a new life in New York City. 

After two weeks on the Atlantic, the "Florida's" passengers endured a second disaster: lost in dense fog, the "Florida" collided with the "Republic," a luxury passenger liner. Three people aboard the "Florida" were killed instantly. Within minutes, pandemonium broke out on the ship. The captain of the "Florida," Angelo Ruspini, used extreme measures to regain control of the desperate passengers, including firing gunshots into the air.  

After being rescued at sea, the damaged "Florida" and the Messina earthquake survivors arrived in New York's harbor. Shaken and unnerved, the immigrants confronted a new challenge: to begin their lives again.