Description

Betty Larosa continues the story of Philip Creighton, a Union colonel who is forced to confront his distrust of women on a journey of self-discovery, love and loss amidst the horrors of war. It’s June 1864. The exhausted Union cavalry company arrives at Howard Hill plantation. Col. Creighton summarily informs Caroline Howard, the widowed mistress of the plantation, that he is confiscating her home. Helpless to stop the intimidating officer, Caroline nevertheless stands up to him. Philip admires her show of courage, but he wonders: Is she like the other women who have betrayed his trust and caused so much pain? It is a question he cannot escape as a few days of rest stretch into a 10-month siege of Petersburg, VA., spanning the most transformative period of Philip’s life. Caroline helps transform Philip’s outlook from bitter disillusionment to hopefulness for the future. But that future may not include Caroline, who makes an unexpected discovery that unravels their plans. At war’s end, ill and grief-stricken, Philip struggles to overcome the demons of his past while learning to deal with the loss of all that is precious to him.

Hardback, 302 pages. (HC-7950HHBL).