To Wager Her Heart (A Belle Meade Plantation Novel) - Hardcover

Can a reformed gambler from the Colorado Territory and a Southern Belle bent on breaking free from society's expectations find a way to work together to achieve their dreams in the new reality of the post-Civil War South?    Seeking justice . . .   Sylas Rutledge, the new owner of the Northeast Line Railroad, invests everything he has into this venture, partly for the sake of the challenge. But mostly to clear his father's name. One man holds the key to Sy's success--General William Giles Harding of Nashville's Belle Meade Plantation. But Harding is champagne and thoroughbreds, and Sy Rutledge is beer and bullocks. Sy needs someone to help him maneuver his way through Nashville's society, and when he meets Alexandra Jamison, he quickly decides he's found his tutor. Only, he soon discovers that the very train accident his father is blamed for causing is what killed Alexandra Jamison's fiancee--and what has broken her heart.    Struggling to restore honor . . .    Spurning an arranged marriage by her father, Alexandra instead pursues her passion for teaching at Fisk University, the first freedmen's university in the United States. But family--and Nashville society--do not approve, and she soon finds herself cast out from both.   Through connections with the Harding family, Alexandra and Sy are thrown together. And despite her first impressions, Alexandra gradually finds herself coming to respect, and even love this man. But how can she, when her heart is still spoken for? And when his roguish qualities and adventuresome spirit smack more of recklessness than responsibility and honor?    Sylas Rutledge will risk everything to win over the woman he loves. What he doesn't count on is having to wager her heart to do it.    Set against the real history of Nashville's Belle Meade Plantation and the original Fisk University Jubilee Singers ensemble, To Wager Her Heart is a sweeping Southern love story about seeking justice and restoring honor at a time in history when both were fragile and hard-won.