Plantation

Since they were children running barefoot about Toulouse Plantation, Josie and Cleo have been as close as sisters, forging an unbreakable bond that defies their roles as mistress and slave. Together, the two have shared secrets and protected each other through happiness and heartbreak. They never dream they could also share an intense passion for the same man, the elegant, charming, and irresistibly seductive Bertrand Chamard. His love will change their friendship forever and set in motion a series of events from which there can be no turning back. Set among the bayous of Old Louisiana and the grand avenues of New Orleans, Always & Forever is the stirring saga of a Creole family and of two women, bound by blood and friendship, who are tested by prejudice, betrayal, and the tragedies of slavery.

Brought up amid the luxury of plantation life, Marianne Johnston never questions her sheltered life until, driven by her conscience, she joins the Underground Railroad. Soon Marianne is living a dangerous double life, helping slaves flee by night and acting the belle by day. And nothing is riskier than her attraction to wild, heartless young Southerner Yves Chamard-while being courted by his noble older brother. Now Marianne is desperately trying to resist Yves's seduction, knowing that her surrender to his touch may cost her everything…Gretchen Craig returns with another sweeping story that brings the Old South to life in all its glory-and a passionate heroine compelled to follow her heart…

Nicolette Chamard, a woman of color in the most color-conscious city in the world, rejoices when the Union Army marches into New Orleans. At last her people will be free, and even knowing her collaboration with the Union will put her in danger, she means to help make it happen. Marcel Chamard, Nicolette's privileged white half-brother, surveys the same parade and sees conquerors, not liberators. If the Union wins the war, it will mean the end of the slave-holding culture, the end of wealth and ease. Marcel wants nothing to change, not the family's rich cane plantation, not the life he plans with his lovely white bride, and not the life he lives with his beloved colored mistress and their two sons. Finnian McKee, a Union Army officer, comes from a family of abolitionists. He is determined to do his small part to make the ideal of freedom a reality for all. When he meets the fascinating Nicolette Chamard, he is too new to New Orleans to recognize that though she is light-skinned, she is by Louisiana standards a Negress. Torn apart by the war and by a culture that forbids their union, his heart's desire is to find love with this woman that will transcend the bonds of race.

Lily Palmer flees with her daughter to take refuge on her uncle's farm in Louisiana. Here she finds herself in a world struggling with the after effects of the Civil War. For the first time, she is confronted with her own careless assumptions about race as she learns to appreciate the humanity of everyone around her. Threatening the fragile peace she achieves, her love for Alistair Whiteaker collides with her own dark past, shattering all hope for a new life. Alistair Whiteaker returns from the war determined to make amends for having owned the men and women who toiled on his plantation. Sickened by his part in perpetuating slavery, he works to thwart the aims of white supremacists and violent racists. At the same time, he longs to make a family with Lily and her daughter. To do that, he must first eliminate the man who inflicts another kind of injustice on the woman he loves. Thomas Bickell uses every ounce of his talent and courage to win suffrage for black men. An ex-slave himself, he knows Emancipation is not enough. When Fanny Brown is assaulted by white supremacists whose true target is Thomas himself, he realizes his greatest challenge may be to reclaim the heart of his beloved.