Ursula’s Inheritance
Civil War fiction welcomes a fresh approach in Eileen Charbonneau’s third book in her American Civil War Brides series, Ursula’s Inheritance. An extended family, with children and soldiers and a warmly welcoming widow in Gramercy Park in New York City, is a far cry from the gory drama of, say, Gone with the Wind. Yet the snugly sheltered household hides secrets that 14-year-old Penina Selby, caught pilfering from the herb garden, senses but can’t quite grasp. “How did a war widow live as comfortably as she did, people asked, with both negro and Irish servants waiting on her?”
In fact, Penina finds far more to wonder at: the widow’s clever signals with her fan, the strange habits of the soldiers staying with her (they not only cook for her, they change the baby’s diaper!), and subtle violations of the outlines of life as she’s come to know it, as the child of a Jewish shopkeeping tailor. Charbonneau’s historical details are delicately painted and carefully accurate. Her presentation of them through the eyes of a girl on the edge of womanhood gives them a sparkle and freshness that’s unusual in historical novels of this time period.
Threads of more secrets intertwine, until it’s clear that Ursula’s grief and pain involve more than simple widowhood, and Penina herself develops unexpected connections with this family that return to her a childhood she’s never experienced, while escorting her to the very edge of growing up. Wartime is terrible—but the domestic security of Ursula’s household, under her fierce protection, remains both tender and magical. Find warmth and affection threaded through each page of this appealing and surprising tale.
