It is February of 1865; the Civil War has been going on for five years now. Flaxen-haired and blue-eyed Miriam Hanner Clarke is widowed at age 28 after her husband, Burton, went to serve in the war and was killed in battle. She fills her days of dealing with his loss by working in the dormitory...

Gracie Kennedy first came across “Billy the Bully” Becker in the woods, when she was seven. He had frightened her terribly that day but ended up taking her home. As a little girl, lost in the woods, that was what made her believe in him. Coming home after years of being away at art school...

Merrie adored Francis Adams when she was a child. But when she was 13, he scolded her and smacked her bottom for letting her puppy run out into the street and then running after it. She decided then that she never wanted to see him again. Ever. Now, six years later, coming home from school, she...

Feisty little schoolteacher, Cinderella Barton, is quite tired of Deputy Henson Andrews telling her what to do. She came to Strasburg to take her first teaching position, and he begins lecturing her the first week, despite her efforts to ignore him. She moves from one boarding home to another...

Angelica Dawson's fiery temper often flared as red as her hair. But finding out from her Uncle Thomas that she was totally without options for her home and future, took the wind completely out of her sails. He was bringing a prospective husband to meet her the following day. All she knew about...