The Candle Star

Boxes aren't meant to be lived in, but that's exactly where Emily Preston's parents are stuffing her. For thirteen years she's been indulged on her parents' plantation. Suddenly they expect a proper, marriageable young lady. After a moment of high spirits, a "tantrum," her mother called it, Emily is sent to stay with her iron-willed, inn-keeping uncle in Detroit. There she meets Malachi, the son of freed slaves, who challenges everything she's grown up believing. Slowly, with plenty of bumps and humor, their abrasive relationship develops into respect, then friendship. But when Emily stumbles upon two runaways hidden in her uncle's barn, she finds that old ways die hard. And Mr. Burrows, the charming Southern slave catcher, is only yards away, lodged in the hotel.

Divided Decade Trilogy, book one.