The Refuge

When Darcie and Walter Goodwin hear of a new cholera epidemic sweeping the area they join the Shakers whose villages seem immune to the disease. It's meant to be a temporary stay but Walter is killed in a riverboat accident. With no family and no money Darcie has little choice but to stay with the Shakers. To complicate matters she is expecting a baby conceived before she and her husband came to the Shaker village. Marital relationships are considered sinful in this celibate community putting Darcie in a unique--and lonely--position. Can the arrival of widower Flynn Keller and his headstrong daughter offer Darcie the hope of happiness . . . and family? Ann H. Gabhart returns to the enigmatic world of the Shakers in this emotional exploration of the power of love and the bond of family.