Simon the Fiddler, Jiles - B

                     Simon Boudlin, 23 year old fiddler extraordinaire, is drafted into the Confederate Army deep in the heart of Texas in the spring of 1865. After a very brief exchange of fire with some Yankees, the Confederates surrender, and Simon is the lead musician at that night's festivities. He sees Doris Dillon, an 18 year old woman indentured to the Union Army's colonel, and falls immediately in love. She heads to San Antonio, and he and a few other musicians go to Galveston. They scrape out a living until year's end, when they move to Houston. Things pick up and they start to make money, and Simon begins to save as his goal is to purchase some land in Texas. He also manages to open a line of communication to Doris. After playing a wedding in Corpus Christi, he heads for San Antonio. He again finds work, and contacts Doris. However, meeting Doris is a fraught enterprise, as Col. Webb is the locale's senior officer, martial law is the law of the land, and Simon has no discharge papers from the Confederates since he had simply walked away. Simon purchases land 400 miles north on the Red River, and begins to dream and plan an idyllic future with Doris. He and Doris plan a getaway from the mean, lying and thieving Colonel and his family. Doris and Simon marry after Webb has him arrested on trumped up charges. They manage, barely, to head into the future on their own. This is the fourth book I've read by this author. She is very, very good, although I'm not sure how many books involving walking around post-war Texas are necessary.