The Topaz — Jennie Hansen

t was a pretty stone that brought Charles Caswell and Hannah Waterton together. That same topaz jewel may have also brought about Hannah's death. Now, more than five years after her murder, two unusual young men come looking for the passionate abolitionist in the small Quaker community where Charles has remained to raise their daughter Serenity. One of the men, Edward Benson, seems to know more about Hannah than Serenity does-including where the stone in her mother's beautiful topaz ring came from.

Serenity had promised her mother that she would treasure and wear the jewel. But upon Hannah's death, the valuable ring was missing and the murderer's motives and identity were never discovered.

Soon Serenity's world is brutally turned upside down, and she is forced into marrying a man she hardly knows. It seems the still-missing ring carries a dark legacy that will put her life in mortal peril. Now it feels impossible for the young woman to discern between true friends and those using her for their own greedy purpose. Will her never-realized inheritance destroy her? Or will blossoming love and growing faith deliver her from the evil that has taken away those closest to her?