The General's Abandoned Wife

When soldiers come to Crow's Hollow for Major General Hawthorne, Grant takes his son Ryan and leaves his wife Audrey behind, promising to send for her later. He also intends to bring Lydia, the woman his mother favors. Audrey already knows the truth: the letters Grant writes to "My Dearest" are addressed to Lydia, not to her.

In a previous life, Grant took Ryan and Lydia back to the Hawthorne estate, and Audrey was not among them. Now she reads the same scene unfolding again—Lydia teaching Ryan French, her son mocking his mother's speech, her husband smiling at the pair. The town calls Audrey lucky, but she remembers who cared for Grant when he washed up nameless and broken.

Audrey keeps her silence and climbs the mountain for morels. The money from a good haul will be enough to leave Crow's Hollow and build a new life somewhere else.