"You see I must go, don't you, Kitty?" Kip asked. Everything in her cried out, No, I don't understand. What about her dreams, her desires, the life they had planned together? Then she remembered the epitaph on the head-stone in the old hillside cemetery, the one that had made such a lasting impression on her: "What I gave, I have; what I spent, I saved, What I kept, I lost." It had been true a hundred years ago, and it was just as true now. If she did not let Kip go freely, he would go anyway, and she would lose him. You could not keep what did not want to be kept. Eventually Kip would be lost to her unless--"Of course, Kip, I understand." When Kitty Cameron, in love with the dashing Kip Montrose, is forced to accept the dangerous career he has chosen for himself, she faces a difficult challenge. In order to follow her heart, she makes a decision that will irrevocably change her own life forever. Determinedly overcoming parental objections as well as her own sensitive nature, Kitty sets out to accomplish her goal. Drawing on inner resources of faith, Kitty emerges from her sheltered girlhood as a woman of enormous bravery, spiritual strength, compassion, and courage. Having survived physical danger, heartbreak, and loss, Kitty discovers that sometimes the reality of love is more fulfilling than its illusion.

Volume 11.

"Have you any plans for the rest of the day?" he asked. "Plans?" she echoed. "Whatever they were, cancel them." He grinned. Crystal nodded, dazed, knowing somehow that if he had proposed a trip to Mars she would have been helpless to refuse. She had come to Virginia to work, not to fall in love -- certainly not with someone like Kip Montrose. Both Kip and his ancestral mansion, Montclair, had captured her imagination. The history of the house intrigued her as much as its master. Even ten years after the end of WWI, the families of Mayfield, VA, still feel its destructive effects. With his days as a dare-devil flying ace behind him, Kip Montrose is having a hard time settling down in the small Southern town and finding a new direction for his life. At the same time, the twins, Cara and Kitty Cameron, are also trying to rebuild their lives shadowed by loss. Then, the arrival of Crystal Kirk, an attractive young career woman, to rent Eden Cottage, and the return of Garnet with Bryane, and her English companion, Jill, sparks excitement, romance, as well as unexpected problems. The era of the Roaring Twenties brings new challenges to the younger members of the Montrose and Cameron clans, as they search for new purpose for their lives, face their inherited destiny, and hope for lasting love. Suddenly, a senatorial campaign tears the families apart and plunges old friends into a bitter political battle in which both winners and losers attain unexpected results.

“Stop stuttering, Jack. Don’t be so clumsy. What’s wrong with you?” Over and over, Jack Warren heard such words his entire life from his father and others. When his brother comes across an ad looking for hired hands in Lincoln, Nebraska, Jack jumps at the chance to go. Finally, he’ll get to live his life in peace since he’ll be far removed from others. What he doesn’t count on is the owner’s attractive daughter who happens to be available. When the new hired hands arrive at her pa’s farm, Maybell is immediately drawn to Jack. Though he wasn’t the most graceful of all men to work for her pa, there’s a certain charm and sweetness about him that appeals to her. Her pa, however, has other ideas. Certain someone as timid as Jack wouldn’t make a good husband, he rejects Jack’s suit. Instead, he plans for her to marry his brother, and he’ll do everything he can to make that happen. *This was originally published in A Groom's Promise anthology.

The lake held special memories of her times with Jeff. Here they had spent hours talking, feeding the swans, and skipping pebbles across the smooth surface, creating circles within circles. One afternoon in particular Faith remembered. Jeff had kissed her. It was their first real kiss. In it were all Faith's dreams, her longings, her hopes, her loyalty and love. "Don't ever stop believing in me," Jeff begged. "I promise, I never will," she had whispered. Did Jeff remember that day? For Faith, that day, that kiss, that promise were a treasured memory, cherished as a special bond between them of mutual trust and love. Could he have forgotten? It was to be a very special summer, the summer of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, the sixtieth year of the English monarch's reign. It was the summer Faith Devlin had looked forward to with great anticipation--the pressures of her debutante year were over, Jeff Montrose was back in London, and her American cousins were coming for a family reunion at the beautiful country estate of Birchfields. It was the summer of unexpected encounters and romantic enterprises -- but it was not to be the summer of Faith Devlin's dreams. . .

"Niki's heart was thrumming as the taxi stopped with a jerk in front of the gray, stone building behind tall, black iron gates. On a metal plaque was engraved Les Soeurs de Merci. Niki thrust several franc notes staring through the rungs of the gate. Years ago another young woman-perhaps her mother- had stood in the same place, a baby in her arms, the child she was going to give up. What emotions had run through her heart?" Niki had come to France to seek her true identity and to experience the richness of her French heritage. But what begins as a romantic, carefree summer holiday for Niki, her stepbrother Luc Montrose, and their friend Paul Duval, ends with the outbreak of war, changing their lives forever. As World War II ravages Europe, Niki wants desperately to serve her native country in its time of need. She finds herself making dangerous decisions and facing dramatic challenges, aware of- but unable to do anything about- the impact the war is having on her loved ones back at Montclair. Caught up in the firestorm of world conflict, this courageous young woman with an unknown past faces an uncertain future, with only her newfound faith to sustain her.