Anne Greene – Romantic Excerpt – Part 3 of 3

Shannon here: Anne Greene shares an excerpt from her Historical Romance, A Rebel Spy. Comment or answer the question on any post dated Dec 12 – 19 to enter the drawing. Two winners will receive copies. Deadline: Dec 30th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Anne:

Excerpt from A Rebel Spy by Anne Greene: 

July 1862 – Falling Waters, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

Major Brent Bartell trailed the graceful, slender figure down the long hallway. Blast if this wasn’t the hardest duty he’d pulled since his division invaded Martinsburg and Falling Waters.

The girl was ravishing. Even after a night of dancing, being captured, and languishing in the stuffy room at headquarters she looked fresh and rested with her dewy complexion and her enormous blue eyes.

When he’d first observed her last night in the moonlight, she’d looked enchanting, her shining hair cascading down her back, and her billowing dress ethereal. He’d fought a tough inner battle before, when bound by duty, he forced himself to arrest her.

He’d come so close to turning his back and letting her slip away into the deep shadows under the heavy growth of trees near the officers’ tents. Except she tiptoed to the central tent where his senior officers bent over a map and talked in low voices as they studied the terrain with the light of a column of candles. Even then his instinct had been to let her slip away.

But he’d had no real choice. He’d had to arrest her.

Together they left the headquarters building.

He brushed the back of his hand over the perspiration beading on his brow. The sultry morning air hung heavy and unstirred by any breeze, but that wasn’t the source of his discomfort. Nor was his hot, blue woolen uniform.

His scalp tingled. General Winchester had believed her story. But he didn’t. Without a doubt, she tracked the position of his Union forces. She was a spy. “Come, Miss Garrett, which way to your home?”

Her heart-shaped face tilted up to send her blue gaze arrow-straight to his heart. In the morning sunlight, her beauty was so striking she resembled an angel. Was it possible for a woman to be so beautiful? Or had he been away from a woman so long he’d forgotten what glorious creatures they were?

“My home is close. We can walk there.” Dimples popped into her cheeks.

Those tiny indentations burned a path to his heart. Did the girl have any idea of her beauty?

A horse neighed. The driver of the buggy yelled, “You want to get killed?”

Brent shook his head and stepped back onto the curb. He must have stumbled into the street. He’d never been awkward before.

She turned down a less busy, tree-shaded street of large mansions that backed to the Potomac River. The noise and tumult of Main Street faded behind them as they strolled, her hand nesting in the crook of his arm.

She gazed up at him and rolled the clearest sky-blue eyes. “This ghastly war is so inconvenient.”

Inconvenient? Bloody and terrible, yes. Would a spy call the war inconvenient?

“Why just last year I danced in Washington, DC, at my Debutant Ball.”

A corkscrew sensation twisted down his back. “The world has changed.” Certainly, a spy wouldn’t have such gay and untroubled memories after barely escaping being hanged.

“But one good thing has come of your Union Army occupying my peaceful town.”

“Oh, what’s that?”

She drew her fingers from the angle of his arm and held out both hands to grasp his. “I met you.”

His heart melted, opened up, and embraced her. But his mind cautioned, whoa. He was just another blue-coat to this Southern Miss. Just another enemy. But his heart disagreed. Why wouldn’t he meet the love of his life at this time? He was twenty-two, single, and away from home. Maybe God orchestrated this meeting. Maybe he’d been wrong about her being a spy. General Winchester freed Sophie. The general must have found her innocent. Besides, whoever heard of a female spy?

“Indeed?” he managed, his throat so tight his voice emerged as deep as a bullfrog’s.

Whether he was just another blue-coat or someone special to her, she’d become special to him. Very special.

But he had his orders.

About Anne: My home is in the quaint antiquing town of McKinney, Texas, just a few miles north of Dallas. My dear husband is a retired Colonel, Army Special Forces. My little brown and white Shih Tzu, Lily Valentine, shares my writing space, curled at my feet. I have four beautiful, talented children, and eight grandchildren who keep me running.

I’ve traveled in every location of each book I’ve written, and each book is a book of my heart. Besides my first love, writing, I enjoy travel, art, sports, reading, sailing, snorkeling, movies, and way too many other things to mention. Life is good. Jesus said, “I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.” Whether writing contemporary or historical, my books celebrate the abundant life Jesus gives.

     I’ve written several other novellas. This novella, AVOIDING THE MISTLETOE, is included in the Mistletoe, Jingle Bells, and Second Chances Collection. My other novellas are  KEARA’S ESCAPE, DAREDEVILS, SPUR OF THE MOMENT BRIDE,  A CHRISTMAS BELLE, THE MARRIAGE BROKER AND THE MORTICIAN, A FOOL FOR LOVE, A GROOM FOR CHRISTMAS, and A TEXAS CHRISTMAS MYSTERY.

      Moody Press published my first book, TRAIL OF TEARS. I love writing about alpha heroes who aren’t afraid to fall on their knees in prayer, and about gutsy heroines. My Women of Courage series spotlights heroic women of World War II, first book, ANGEL WITH STEEL WINGS. My private investigating series, Handcuffed In Texas starts with RED IS FOR ROOKIE. Enjoy my award-winning Scottish historical romances, MASQUERADE MARRIAGE and MARRIAGE BY ARRANGEMENT. I hope my stories transport you to awesome new worlds and touch your heart to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy my books on http://www.Amazon.com. Anne Greene.

About the book – A Rebel Sky: 

A Yankee Army major so admires a Confederate spy that he puts his life on the line for her. What secret does the major keep from the spy? Can love based on secrets survive? Is there a future for these war-torn lovers?

Danger loving, madcap Sophie Garrett spies for her beloved Confederacy. Flirting her way through Union lines, she gains vital information for General Stonewall Jackson until she is suspected of passing secrets. She’s unable to hoodwink Yankee Major Brent Bartell. Even though his moral and ethical allegiance belong to the North, he so admires the rebel spy’s courage and wit that he puts his own life on the line to protect her from prison and death.

Questions for the Reader: Do you enjoy novels set during the Civil War or would you prefer to see something set during the Revolutionary War? Or do you like danger-loving heroines? Yankees and Confederates did get together during the Civil War. Does that surprise you?

Come back Dec 22nd for Mary Hamilton!