About the book

It is early spring in 1883. Ben and Anna Archer are living in exile, away from their ancestral home in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri.  They are happy with each other and their little girl, but they miss family and friends in the hills along the crystal waters of Bull Creek, near the village of Sycamore.  They believed it best to leave after Ben shot a man in self-defense, but he was neither acquitted nor convicted in the resulting trial. Most of the community considered it an outrage, but some danger remained.  They accepted an offer of tenancy on a farm miles north in rolling country. Now, a near tragedy causes them to acknowledge a yearning to return.  They must balance that yearning against possible threats that may still exist.  A journey back to Bull Creek may help them decide. Another possibility for a return would be for a different reason.  The U. S. Attorney General has charged Marshal Joshua Lambert to find a former prominent member of the community, Perry Madison, wanted for questioning in a murder that had taken place a year before.  Colonel Madison is also to be returned to Washington in connection with his activities during the Civil War. In the past, Anna’s mother was killed by a horse, and her father, Jürgen Friedrich, placed her in service with Madison’s family.  Her father and brother left for the West, and she has not heard from them. Anna had to overcome numerous challenges before she and Ben found each other. Buy it here