Neither Death Nor Distance

When she marries, it’s forever. Will she walk through the Civil War to prove it?

Enslaved in Georgia, Pen and Jonas have loved each other since they were children. When they marry, they fear it won’t last. They’re right. On the eve of the Civil War, their master sells Jonas away to Mississippi.

In 1863, when Pen hears of the Emancipation Proclamation, she takes it to heart. She resolves to find the husband she can’t forget. She leaves without a certain destination, without a guide, and without a dime in her pocket. As a runaway, she walks into a world of peril from slave catchers, Confederate deserters, and renegade Union soldiers.

In Mississippi, the Confederate army forces Jonas into service to build fortifications for the city of Vicksburg. Hating the Confederacy, yearning for Pen, he knows he’s fighting the wrong war. When General Grant’s army besieges the city, Jonas comes under dangerous fire—but in the Union bombardment, he hears the siren song of freedom.

Will she find him? Will he live to see her again? Will their love triumph, or will death and distance part them forever?