Beneath a Southern Sky

Advance Praise for
Beneath a Southern Sky

“Forget the movie of the week.
Beneath a Southern Sky
reads like a dramatic film, but has substance of eternal importance. Six months after reading it, I’m still digesting what it means to me. Everyone will be talking about this book!”

—L
ISA
T
AWN
B
ERGREN
best-selling author of the Full Circle series and
Midnight Sun

“There aren’t many novels that keep me awake reading into the wee hours of the night, but
Beneath a Southern Sky
did. Nathan, Daria, and Cole slipped from the pages of this book and into my heart. I experienced all their heart-wrenching emotions, agonized over every decision they had to make, and rejoiced as they triumphed by God’s grace in the midst of an impossible, hopeless situation. Bravo, Ms. Raney!”

—R
OBIN
L
EE
H
ATCHER
best-selling author of
The Forgiving Hour
and
Whispers from Yesterday

“Beneath a Southern Sky
has magnetic qualities! I just couldn’t seem to put it down! In her normal, five-tissue fashion, Deborah Raney has created an impossible situation for her heroine, Daria Camfield. As I read, I thought I imagined all the ways Raney could tie her book into a neat little bow. Not so! The poignant ending of this thought-provoking novel took me unaware and lingered in my mind for days afterwards. You
definitely
won’t be disappointed.”

—L
ISA
E. S
AMSON
best-selling author of
The Church Ladies

“In
Beneath a Southern Sky
, Deborah Raney reminds us that God’s ways are not our ways… but His paths lead to fulfillment and joy.”

—A
NGELA
E
LWELL
H
UNT
author of
The Note
and The Heirs of Cahira O’Connor series

“Beneath a Southern Sky
captured my attention on page one and held me in its grips to the last page. Deborah has written an incredible tale of passionate love, tragic mistakes, and second chances. Write faster, Deborah Raney!”

—D
ENISE
H
UNTER
author of
Reunions

“Deborah Raney dug deeply into my heart with this story of sacrificial love. No reader could walk away from this novel without a clearer, more personal picture of the love of Christ. I thank Deborah for reminding me that, even though life’s choices aren’t always easy, God is always there to help us make them.”

—H
ANNAH
A
LEXANDER
author of
Sacred Trust, Solemn Oath
, and
Silent Pledge

For my mother,
Winifred Ann Teeter,
who taught me to love books and
who, by her example, taught me—teaches me still—
how to be a Christian wife and mother.
and
For my mother-in-law,
Shirley Ann Raney,
whose love and friendship I cherish
and who raised the wonderful son who became my husband.
I love you both with all my heart.

Prologue

A
chill spring rain washed the Kansas Turnpike, and the angry grey skies overhead offered no hope for an end to the downpour. It seemed to Daria that hers was the only car on this lonely stretch of highway. The deserted road seemed a fitting metaphor for what her life had become. She passed the Emporia exit and shifted in her seat, settling in for the long haul. She’d been on the road for well over an hour, and her destination was still more than two hours away. Was two hours long enough to decide what she would do when she got there? Was a lifetime long enough?

She took her hands off the wheel and rubbed away the beginnings of a headache. As she turned her head from side to side, trying to ease the taut muscles in her neck, her eyes fell on the yellow piece of paper that lay on the passenger seat beside her. In this world of fax machines and e-mail, she hadn’t realized that people still sent telegrams. And yet it seemed appropriate somehow. She couldn’t imagine news such as this 8 ½-by-11-inch sheet of paper held coming any other way. Daria turned her eyes back to the road. She didn’t need to read the telegram again. She had it memorized. But committing the tersely worded message to memory didn’t answer the heartrending question it begged.

Barely forty-eight hours ago she had thought she was the happiest woman alive. But nineteen words on one thin yellow sheet of paper had changed everything, and now the reality of her dilemma nearly took her breath away. How did a woman choose between two men she had always loved with all her heart?

The relentless drumming of the rain on her windshield and the incessant rhythm of the wipers carried her back to another time, to another rain, and bid her to walk the paths of memory one more time. And like the silver ribbon of highway that curled ahead, the past three years of Daria’s life spooled out before her.