If Love Be Lost: A Civil War Ladies' Story of Conflicted Loyalties

Summary

A young dressmaker, Ginnie Allen, during the Civil War, must go against her Northern sentiments, choosing to remain loyal to her Secessionist friends. Madam LaTour, an influential business woman, needs her help in gathering Union information for the Confederacy. Captain Owen Ross, now without his steamboat, needs her help to deliver Rebel mail. Looming over these events is Gideon Pike, a Federal Agent from Chicago, now in St. Louis to help the police and Union soldiers ferret out Rebel spies and Secessionists. Penalties for crimes of disloyalty might include assessment, banishment South, imprisonment or hanging. Arriving unexpectedly is cousin William MacGregor accompanied by a haughty young woman, Margaret; he has an unwelcome surprise for both women. The Union Soiree at Freudig's Garden introduces Ginnie to several young officers including Lt. Charles Whitaker. Charles will soon return to his unit in Georgia, leaving Ginnie behind and his own uncertain future ahead. In the process, she finds a love which would, other-wise, never have come to be.