The Jackal’s Mistress

In 1864 Virginia, Libby Steadman’s prayers for her husband (a Confederate soldier) to return home from a Union prison camp have gone unanswered for so long that she has finally given up thinking that he’s still alive. However, if she hopes to survive the war, she cannot give up running her mill, along with freedman Joseph and his wife Sally. Then Sally encounters an injured Union officer in an abandoned home, having heard his cries of distress. Libby cannot leave the man to die, even if he is a Northerner, so she and Joseph bring severely wounded Captain Jonathan Weybridge back to the Steadman home, and then Libby, Joseph, Sally, and Libby’s niece Jubilee work to save his life. With the covert help of a local doctor who is competent and can be bribed with whiskey, they get Weybridge past the point of death. When it becomes apparent that members of a local guerilla organization have suspicions they’re harboring an enemy soldier, the group realizes that it’s not just Weybridge who is in danger.