Always to Remember

Heath (Parting Gifts) offers a tender Civil War romance that manages to give a fresh twist to that conflict and powerfully portrays another side of courage. Drafted into the Confederate Army, Clayton Holland refused to bear arms and kill his fellow countrymen-a crime for which he spent nine months in a Confederate prison and was very nearly executed. As if that weren't bad enough, when he returns to his hometown in Texas, he's shunned as a coward. Paradoxically, Clayton, who had sculpted tombstones with his father before he left for the war, is the only person capable of creating the monument Meg Warner wants to erect to the memory of her husband, brothers and other town war dead. With its unconventional, heart-wrenching hero, this slow-building story plays on every emotion-guilt, anger, honor and, ultimately, love. (Feb.)