Chances

Adelida Broussau took a big chance by saying she was Rueben Hamilton's new bride. Her sister, Maria, was dead. Her brother-in-law, Victor, ordered her out of New Orleans by nightfall. Then there was Rueben, hit on the head for attempting to thwart a bank robbery, his memory gone and leaving town that very day. So she took a big chance and let him believe they were married.

Rueben Hamilton went to New Orleans at the request of the President to help with the reconstruction of Louisiana after the Civil War. He'd gone into the bank to finish his business before boarding The Queen for the first leg of his journey home. He didn't remember the bank robbery. All he remembered was awaking with a headache, no memory, and a wife.

It was supposed to take a month for them to reach Love's Valley, Pennsylvania. That was if everything went according to plan and Rueben's memory didn't return. But fate played her hand and dealt the two of them some unforeseen cards that turned their world upside down.

Their hearts didn't care that there'd been a war and it was the worst possible time for a Yankee soldier and a Louisiana bayou woman to fall in love.