Lise Rettig Frazier

Unguarded Hearts Lise Rettig Frazier

Hoping to escape a painful past, Boston attorney Ben Cross and his troubled young sister, Stacy, move to Jasper, Texas in 1909. Still stinging from a Lost Cause, Jasper is a company town, run by Louis Sanborn of the Sanborn Lumber Company. Ben's ambition is ignited, and his heart stirred by lovely, impulsive heiress Laura Sanborn. Deserted by her childhood sweetheart Andy Marlowe, Laura rushes into a desperate marriage to Ben, finding unexpected joy. But Ben and Laura are surrounded by enemies, and fractured Stacy hides a secret of her own - an angry inner voice named Katie. The conflict between two young women who love Ben sets off a chain of events ending in shocking violence. Laura and her son Jamie are forced to flee Jasper, but Laura can never forget the man she loves. From Texas to Brooklyn to Paris, from the innocent years before the Great War and into the Roaring Twenties, Ben and Laura, challenged by their past, struggle to find a future.