No one thought that the Second Street boarding house would be destroyed by arsonists. Things have gotten ugly in Blaineton, New Jersey. It is in the middle of the Civil War and the abolitionist sympathies of the people in Maggie's house have made them a target for Copperhead forces. When the violence threatens to escalate, Maggie's husband Eli decides to move everyone to his family's old home, where his two sisters are aiding fugitive slaves. But this means relocating to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Maggie and her family risk the move, hoping to find some badly-needed peace of mind and heart. But that may not be possible with newspaperman Eli and reporter/photographer Chester Carson off covering the war and with Edgar and Patrick in the army. While Maggie and the remaining members of her family struggle to start anew in a strange place, they begin to hear rumors. Will Confederate troops march into Pennsylvania? And if so, what will happen?

Set in the months immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg, A TIME TO HEAL continues the story of Maggie and Eli Smith and their unconventional family. Everyone is hoping and praying for healing and a return to normal life, but an act of compassion has unintended consequences and puts them in jeopardy.

In this gentle prequel to the Saint Maggie Series, widow Maggie Blaine has scant joy in Christmas of 1852. Having lost her husband nearly three years earlier and her much-loved Aunt Letty that year, she struggles to maintain the boarding house and feed and care for those who live in it. Finally, she hires a woman named Emily Johnson to help her. Even though Maggie is white and Emily is black, the two women become friends. When Emily and her husband Nate suffer a disaster, the financially-challenged Maggie decides help them at the expense of Christmas dinner and her beloved Dundee cake.

Maggie Blaine, a good-hearted widow with two teenage daughters, runs a rooming house smack dab on the town square of Blaineton, New Jersey. In 1860, boarding houses are only semi-respectable, and that alone would make her a social outcast. But her house has a collection of eclectic boarders, as well as Emily and Nate Johnson, an African American couple with whom she shares her home, life, and chores. Despite her low place in society, Maggie has the one thing the congregation of her Methodist church badly needs: a room in which to house the new minister, since the parsonage has burned down. When she is asked to house the Rev Jeremiah Madison, Maggie feels as if things are looking up. She hopes that the handsome, gifted pastor not only will revive her little church but also provide her boarding house with some badly needed respectability. However, Jeremiah comes with secrets that eventually lead to disturbing complications. As the town reels from a series of shocking events, the compassionate, faithful Maggie searches to find forgiveness and to learn the truth. (The story is based on a historical event.)

In the nineteenth century "seeing the elephant" or "I've seen the elephant" meant "now I've seen everything" or "now I've seen it all." Civil War soldiers also used the term to mean they had seen battle. Maggie and her unconventional family have seen the elephant in more ways than they ever thought possible. But now they have returned to their hometown of Blaineton, New Jersey and things are looking up. Maggie's husband Eli has been hired as the Editor-in-Chief of The Register, the town's new newspaper, published by the indomitable Tryphena Moore. Emily Johnson's husband Nate has re-established his carpentry business, and Emily's home-baked goods are selling at the local bakery.But they soon discover that Blaineton is not the same. An insane asylum has opened its doors north of town. A woolen mill and army uniform factory are doing big business to Blaineton's south. And a wealthy industrialist by the name of Josiah Norton seeks to change the face and tenor of the once sleepy burg. And old struggles are still with them. Maggie worries about Eli, who suffers increasingly from nightmares. Maggie cares for a new baby and edits articles for the Register., She and Emily find it difficult keeping up an enormous house. And Maggie's daughter Frankie has accepted a job offer at the Western New Jersey Hospital for the Insane. Life may not be as peaceful as they all had hoped.

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