Burning Bride

It is a chilly Autumn in Rufford, Maine, but violent passions and tempers inflamed in the wake of America's war of independence are still burning white hot. Perparing for her pucoming marriage -- pregnant with the child of Daniel Josselyn -- Hannah Trevor's happiness is overshadowed by news that her cousin Jonathan is missing and feared dead. One of a band of Regulators -- farmers turned militant rebels in protest of crippling taxation -- Jonathan is presumed to have fled into the Outward, the fast forests that border on Rufford. Then, with tensions in town reaching an explosive level, a body is discovered at the edge of the same wilderness.

Meanwhile, it is Muster Day in Rufford, when the militia is massed to drill in anticipation of new conflicts that may threaten the newborn country. At their head is Major Josselyn, torn in tow by his responsibilities to maintain order and his sympathy for the men at whose side he fought in the war of Revolution -- many of whom have already been consigned to the brutal debtor's prison.

When a second murder rocks the town of Rufford on the eve of his marriage to Hannah, Daniel is arrested. Once again, Hannah will be forced to piece together a patchwork of suspects and motivations -- as she pieces together the quilt for her marriage bed -- if she is to clear Daniel's name. In the end, clinging desperately to her hope for a peaceful life with Daniel, her daughter Jennet, and her unborn child, she'll find herself confronted with the prospect of the ultimate sacrifice.