The Rain and the Light

Wisconsin Territory, 1842.

Prudence Everleigh once believed she could change the world.

As headmistress of a school for Black girls, she devoted herself to the abolitionist cause—until violence, tragedy, and public scorn destroyed everything she had built. Now burdened by guilt, debilitating headaches and the ruin of her former purpose, she sees little future for herself beyond the walls of her father's home.

Owen Lynde has spent his entire life under the weight of his family's expectations. Determined to escape and build a life of his own, he secures a promising law partnership in booming Milwaukee. There's only one obstacle: respectability demands a wife.

When Owen proposes a practical marriage to Prudence—the childhood friend he has admired since boyhood—it seems the answer to both their problems.

Bound by duty rather than romance, they marry and travel west to Wisconsin Territory, where opportunity and uncertainty stretch as wide as the unbroken horizon. As they build a new home on the frontier, their childhood friendship begins to deepen into something more… But as Prudence's passion for justice pulls her back into the fight against slavery, they must decide what they are willing to risk—for their convictions, their future, and each other. 

Set against the backdrop of America's expanding frontier and the growing struggle over slavery, The Rain and the Light is a sweeping historical romance about love, resilience, and the extraordinary power of beginning again.