Book excerpt: Raine Cantrell brilliantly spins a twist on THE GIFT OF THE MAGI in this heartwarming holiday novella. Jacob DeWitt, a widower on Christmas leave during the Civil War, returns to his New York home determined to get Ellie Winifred to marry him. She has taken in his two motherless children and his younger brother while he is off at war. It makes perfect sense to him that they marry, but Ellie resists. It will take every bit of help Jacob, a proud, stubborn man, can get if he is going to convince Ellie that he is worthy of her love.