Preview of Dealer's Choice, Chpt 1, entry #1

I've decided it would be fun to serialize and share Chapter 1 of my book, Dealer's Choice, in weekly doses here in my website blog (www.mayolucas.com) up until its official publication date (or "pub date" as they say in the biz) of October 30. So read on to enjoy a bit of the story...then come back here every Wednesday for the next snippet.

Northern Mississippi, December 1872

It was sleeting. Tiny seeds of ice pecked at the glass and bounced away. Caroline had been smelling it—that or a rare snow—in the air all day. Luckily, she’d already gathered her pine boughs to do some Christmas decorating later.

Huddling deep into her shawl, she used the side of her fist to wipe the fog from an upstairs window. By habit, her eye swept across the once-lovely front lawn to the scars made by Grant’s troops nine years ago. Most had long since blurred beneath the scraggly growth of weeds and grasses, but the deepest ones remained. For years her brother had promised to restore it all—house, lawns, everything—to its former splendor. She no longer believed it