Jeannie Mobley

After the Army of the Republic destroys her town, Claudie and her sister agree to a mission to deliver a valuable stolen jewel to the resistance's leader and Claudia finds herself irresistibly drawn to the man and his cause.

Juliette Pitau, the daughter of a master gem-cutter, hopes to avoid execution by telling the court clerk--who is also her paramour--the story of how King Louis XIV's magnificent blue diamond was stolen. Includes author's note.

In 1923, when New Orleans native and orphan Bobby Lee Claremont boards a train to Chicago, where he hopes to join the criminal element and make a new life for himself, far away from the heavy-handed salvation of the Sisters of Charitable Mercy, he acquaints himself with a group of intriguing and possibly dangerous passengers who cause Bobby Lee to reconsider his plans.