A country, a family, and a house divided against itself.

Pa made me promise that what ever I decided, I’d stay at Laurelea to help Mr. Heath and the Henrys with the farm and the Underground Railroad, that I’d wait to enlist until I turned eighteen. “Then think long and hard,” he said, “before you agree to shoot one of your countrymen — or kin — between the eyes.”

It was a promise I sometimes regretted, but kept true until the spring of 1864, until the day Emily’s letter came…

The bonds linking family and the lines separating enemies become blurred for seventeen-year-old Robert when the cousin he loves begs him to aid her father, a Confederate prisoner of war, then travel south to help her care for his estranged mother.

Unwittingly entangled in a prison escape, left for dead and charged as a spy, Robert must forge his anger and shame into a renewed determination to rescue his family. When confronted by an enemy and a war he no longer understands, Robert finds that the rescue, and its results, may not be up to him.

Honor and duty to God and country aren’t as clear-cut as he’d first believed.

About the Author: Cathy Gohlke’s first novel, William Henry is a Fine Name, won the Christy Award. She has worked as a school librarian, drama director for adults and young people, and as a director of children’s and education ministries. Cathy lives with her husband in Maryland. you can visit her site at www.cathygohlke.com.

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