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Category: Historical Fiction/Romance
Description: Zane and Larissa Edwards, rearing their children Mac and Rose on the family farm, foresee the future spinning out as contentedly as their past. Civil War erupts, shattering their lives and dreams. Zane joins the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and is sent to Fort Laramie in Nebraska Territory. His friend Ethan Michaels, a widower with a young daughter, Charity, having promised Zane he will help Larissa with the work, moves to the farm as a hired hand. Ten-year-old Mac begins studying medicine under the town's crusty doctor. Larrisa cannot know if Zane will survive the horrors of war. Ethan cannot seem to reconcile his growing love for Larissa, the wife of his best friend, both of whom trust him implicitly. Mac fears his dreams of becoming a doctor will turn to ashes when the war threatens to destroy all he holds dear.
eBook Publisher: Treble Heart Books, 2007
eBookwise Release Date: November 2007

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [470 KB]
Words: 103724
Reading time: 296-414 min.

Monday morning after the Fort Sumter news broke, instead of eating breakfast and heading to the cornfield as on the thousand other spring days of his life, Zane dressed to go to town and sign up for going to war. He planned to walk with Mac and Rose on their way to school. He could ensure trouble hadn't erupted in town, and that the youngsters wouldn't come to harm.

He tried to make light of it all and of his ultimate reason for going. As he viewed his neatly combed hair, he joked, "I can't remember dressing this carefully since the evening we got married, Rissa." Glimpsing her stricken eyes in the mirror, his voice trailed off. Turning slowly, he faced her. Ignoring the fact Mac and Rose were watching, he reached to touch her soft chestnut hair.

She caught his hand in both of hers and held it to her lips. "You were a sight to make my heart race that night, Zane Edwards. And never once since then has it slowed down." A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Just in case the fact slipped your notice these fourteen years."

He brushed her lips with his thumb. "It didn't, Rissa-love. Be sure, it didn't." He looked deep into her eyes and saw love and glowing pride replace the stricken look. Pride in him, he realized with the same awe he always experienced, even after all the years.

He turned to the silent children and Rose slipped her hand into his. "Ready, pupils? We don't want Miss Sullivan to mark you late. I wonder if she's wearing the same whalebone corset she wore during my student days? Talk about an unbending personality." As he intended, Rose giggled and Mac hid a coughing chuckle at such wicked talk.

At the door, under cover of their amusement, he bent to Larissa's ear. "I'll be home soon as I can."

She lifted her hand, and in spite of the heart heaviness he knew she concealed, she gave him a glowing smile that made his toes curl. "I'll be waiting."