Loving Lila

A time for love in nineteenth century America, a time to be thankful. Shortly before Thanksgiving, 1882, Lila Cleod is called home from the Iowa City, Iowa, where she works as a nanny and attends the University of Iowa. However, this Thanksgiving, she doubts she will find much to celebrate or be thankful for. Her father has died. After the funeral, she will learn if he left her, his oldest daughter by his first marriage, anything in his will. She suspects his second wife and Lila’s half-brother, three-year-old Wellborn, will get the lion’s share. Will she be able to complete her course of study and qualify to become a teacher?

David Montgomery, having been sent by his father to escort his three younger half-siblings home from a visit to their New York grandparents he does not share, looks forward to returning to his job on Littleton, Colorado’s High Line Canal construction project. After reboarding the train in Iowa City, Iowa, his siblings point out a young woman dressed in mourning clothes sitting within the pair of facing benches they formerly occupied. What David notices is the obnoxious, middle-aged drummer leaning over the back of her bench and placing his face too close to her ear. It is the man's loud bragging that annoys David. Deciding not only to reclaim his former seats, but hopefully, to rescue the young woman without adding to her discomfort, siblings in hand, he makes a bold move.

Will this Thanksgiving season bring Lila only sorrow, or will it include the promise of love and future blessings?