Brave Enemies

In the 1780s, unrest ruled the Carolinas. Settlers were arriving as the Cherokees withdrew, and British forces pillaged as patriots mustered for battle. Robert Morgan’s stunning new novel, Brave Enemies, tells of two young people caught in the chaos and war raging in the wilderness. Only sixteen years old, Josie Summers murders her abusive stepfather and flees the family farm disguised as a man. Soon lost in the snowy woods, she accepts a young preacher’s invitation to assist in his itinerant ministry. When her true identity is revealed, the Reverend John trethman is racked with guilt at having shared his home with a young woman and then fallen in love with her. His solution is to ‘marry’ Josie, performing as both minister and bridegroom. Not long after their wedding, John is kidnapped by British soldiers and forced to minister to their wounded and bury their dead. Josie again disguises herself as a man and joins the North Carolina Militia to avoid being taken for a spy. She is gravely injured in the battle of Cowpens, and despairs of ever seeing John again. Brave Enemies is a story of romance and enduring love and of the struggle to build a homeland.