Leigh Verrill-Rhys Knihy

1871. The war has been over for six years but Rupe Smith still fights his demons. Ten years have passed since he left his Maine village. His Wyoming ranch is the one place he wants to be and the last place he can be. There is no escape from the guilt of his parents' grief or his longing for the girl whose one letter kept him alive, without knowing she is beyond his reach, married and raising a family.Cathryn Marcher is not the giddy, giggling girl with high ideals she was before the war. The woman who waited for Rupert Smith's safe return has no doubt she isn't the reason he has finally come home. The haunted expression on his handsome face reminds her of the outcome, the horror and suffering of war she saw close at hand, all those years ago, in the faces of soldiers she nursed in Boston. Captain Smith and Miss Marcher share a love of music but Cathryn must hide her disappointment when Rupert chooses to sing in harmony with the widow, Mrs. Miller, whom the residents of Oslo Hill believe will be his bride. Susan Miller's disdain for her voice teacher, her rival for Rupert's love, is matched by Colonel Jericho Colson's loathing for his fellow Union Army officer, his rival for Cathryn's heart.

Sylviana Langdon’s marriage went bad from the start. She married the wrong guy, and there was no chance of ever making him right―not for her. Divorced and dating again, she can’t stop thinking about a smart guy she met a few weeks before Steve came into her life. Eric Wasserman walked away from her with no explanation back then. What would he want with an airhead artist’s model now, fifteen years and two little girls later? Captain Wasserman’s best buddy, Steve Langdon, saved his life and stole his girl. The career Army officer’s second-in-command drops a pretty blue envelope on his desk. The handwriting isn’t familiar, but the name pulls the pin on the grenade that has been in Eric’s mind since he walked away from the green-eyed girl his buddy wanted. When he doesn’t reply to either of the two letters and a third arrives, his ungentlemanly behavior threatens the morale of his combat support unit. For the sake of his unit, Eric takes the hit from his best buddy’s wife, wondering why Steve has put her up to writing to a man she doesn’t know.