"I've known Paul my whole life," he answered with a wry grin. Lance Rankin misses his younger brother. Paul died in that terrible war, and even though the Rankins have built a community of friends on their ranch south of Cheyenne, Lance often thinks of him. The Civil War ended in 1865. Five years later, people from both the North and the South were still dealing with the loss of family, friends, and livelihood. The cost was high, and the scars the survivors carried were not always easy to see. Doctor Reuben Williams and his sister live in Columbus, Georgia. Even though Reuben thinks Beth spends too much time with the dead, she loves to walk through the small, city cemetery.

Those visits give her a sense of peace as she searches the new tombstones for the name of their younger brother. Beth talks to all the young men buried there, but an unexplained feeling of sadness washed over her when she read Sergeant Paul Rankin's marker for the first time. "So many young lives cut short. I wonder what they would have become.".