A Perilous Proposal: No. 1 (Carolina Cousins S.) - Tapa dura

A Perilous Proposal introduces readers to a slave boy nicknamed Jake. Jake strives against his master and even his father. When his father disappears, Jake becomes angrier yet and kills a white drifter who attacked his mother. Sure his deed will be discovered, Jake runs away. He is captured by a band of angry confederate soldiers and barely escapes with his life, then finds haven witht he Union army and a soft-spoken black soldier named Micah. Micah gently urges him to let go of his anger, but Jake holds on to it with stubborn determination. Jake abandons the army and starts North, carrying a grudge and his guilty secret, on a quest to find freedom and his long-lost father. In North Carolina, he not only discovers his father, but two intriguing young women as well, one of them a former slave like himself. Jake soon falls in love with the beautiful black girl, but she is hesitant to marry anyone just yet. She has only recently come to know her real father and longs spend more time with her new family. Meanwhile, Jake runs into trouble with some white boys in town and soon the hooded riders are burning crosses in their yard. Has Jake learned to forgive his father--and himself--only to lose his true love...and possibly his life?