title: The Wedding Dress
author: Ellis, Virginia
description: Julia and Victoria Atwater were barely brides before their husbands marched off to fight in the Civil War. Now alone, with scarcely enough money to see them through until spring, they embark on an impetuous mission to bring joy back into their youngest sister's life. Seventeen-year-old Claire has always wanted to be married. And though she has no intended groom, her sisters decide to sew her a wedding gown. As the dress takes shape, the gates of their meager plantation home welcome the arrival of Sergeant Monroe Tacy. He has come to fulfill a dying man's last request, but his presence begins a series of remarkable events that will transform the Atwater sisters forever.