Book excerpt: Speed Wilson and Hattie Willis Wilson answered their own calling during the civil war. Arrested for harboring a Confederate recruiting officer, Speed faced the prospect of military service against his conscience or leaving Hattie with six children and crops in the field. Farmer Speed must play the surprising role of nurse to survive Gratiot Street Prison in Saint Louis, Missouri while Hattie manages farm and family through a brutal winter. Reunited, their love is challenged by the death of a newborn and the tumult of the war still raging in boarder state Missouri.