Richmond, Virginia - February 9, 1864
In a City Riddled with Whispers and Watchful Eyes, Innocence is a Liability.
Branded a traitor, Annie Campbell is determined to survive unnoticed. But when an escaped Union prisoner collapses at her door and men who knew her father begin to watch her, Annie is forced into a dangerous game of secrets, suspicion, and coerced allegiance, where loyalty may be the most perilous move of all.
Annie Campbell wants nothing to do with the war that has already destroyed her family. Branded a traitor, she has only three goals: stay alive, find her missing brother, and avoid the shadow world of intrigue tightening around Richmond.
Then a letter arrives. Her estranged father has been executed as a Confederate spy in Washington, his secrets tied to lives lost and questions Annie cannot answer. Before she can grasp the truth, a half-dead prisoner escaped from Libby Prison collapses at her door, hunted and desperate. Saving his life draws Annie into Richmond's hidden war, a war fought with coded messages, false loyalties, and quiet betrayals.
Hiding him marks Annie as something far more dangerous than a sympathizer. It makes her complicit.
Forced into a web of deception she never chose, Annie becomes privy to plans whispered in back rooms and guarded by men who will kill to keep them secret, including a plot that reaches beyond Richmond, beyond the war itself, and toward the fate of President Abraham Lincoln. As suspicion closes in and a dangerous conspiracy unfolds, one that could alter the course of the war, Annie must decide if she is willing to sacrifice everything.
Trust is lethal. Love is forbidden. And every choice Annie makes draws her deeper into a game where innocence offers no protection.
A Disloyal Element is a historical romantic suspense novel of espionage, divided loyalties, and a woman caught between conscience and survival at the heart of the Civil War.
