A Heart For Any Fate

In 1790 in Virginia on the banks of the New River, twenty-year-old Hannah Allison is married to Willard Temple Cole. Among the guests at the wedding is Dolley Todd and her husband. As a wedding gift, Hannah is given a personal journal and encouraged to make a record of her life by Dolley Todd. Following the death of her husband, Dolley will marry James Madison and eventually become First Lady. Temple has a farm in the New River area, but finds that the land has played out, whereas the new frontier in Kentucky offers great opportunities. Stephen Cole, Temple's brother, is also a guest at his brother's wedding and sixteen-year-old Phoebe Allison, Hannah's sister, is drawn to him. But Stephen is very different from Temple. He is drawn to the free-roaming life, although he is around when Temple and Hannah decide the time has come to migrate to Kentucky. Also accompanying the Coles is Lucy, an Allison family slave who was thirteen at the time of Hannah's wedding. In an uncertain world with Indian raids and natural disasters, Lucy stays with Hannah, helping her with her growing family, even as Hannah's children grow up and strike out on their own.

Raised in the Midwest, Suzanne Lyon resides near Denver with her husband and two children.