Laurel Monteille Covey, had she lived today, would have a nice neat diagnosis of a terrible problem: post traumatic stress disorder. But as a nurse during the Civil War, she has no such knowledge of that disorder and instead suffers nightmares and the slow feeling that she is going crazy. Her husband dead in the war, Laurel travels the country at the war's end to deliver the final words of dying soldiers to their families. Almost to the end of her travels, she meets up with Creede Forester, a desperate father searching out the nurse who cared for his son in the hopes that the boy really hadn't died.

Creede knows he'll get bad news, but there's a part of him that hopes that Austin survived. When he meets Laurel, he feels the true devastation of knowing his child is dead, and even worse, that he had no last words to comfort him. Despite his grief, Creede joins Laurel on her travels because she certainly isn't safe alone.

These two lonely, heartbroken souls have a long way to go to find each other. Laurel must find some kind of peace with all the death she saw (much of which she's convinced she could have affected if she'd made decisions differently). Creede must accept his son's death and that his own life is still worth living.

What a sad book. No matter how much joy these two eventually were able to find in each other, no matter how much we're reminded that there is always something to live through -- the emotional depths these two characters must plow are overwhelming. Laurel, in particular, leaves you feeling as if her torment is somehow a little your own burden now. Which means, of course, that this was very well written. An excellent read and a new perspective on the Civil War.

Book Summary

How could I refuse the wish of a dying man?

May 30, 1865: During the War, I watched over too many young boys in the hospital, comforting them as they cried out for those they loved, as they whispered their final thoughts to me. Keeping a record of their names, families, and last words seemed a small tribute to their sacrifice— until the war ended, and I found a new mission in life.

I would visit the loved ones of those poor soldiers and deliver their messages so that some comfort could be found even in grief…

But Laurel Covey never expected to find a man like Creede Forrester—an ex-gunslinger who rode all the way from Texas to Virginia in the hope of finding his son and ended up saving her from a band of ruffians. It pains her deeply to tell him of his boy’s death, and she believes that in his heart, Creede blames himself for driving his son away. But there is something more to this rugged, weary man. Something that draws Laurel closer to him…something she cannot resist…