Reviews for The Lieutenant's Lady
Review - Lieutenant's Lady, The
There were a lot of descriptions of the west that bogged down somewhat, but I liked the characters and the writing was good.
Reviewed by Roger on 2026-07-28 10:01:31
The Lieutenant's Ladyby Bess Streeter Aldrich | |
| Category: |
"Fiction - Historical" |
|---|---|
| Pages: | 277 |
| Year of Publication: | 1942 |
| Date Added: | 01/22/2021 |
| Date Read: | 07/28/2026 |
| Notes: | Linnie travels to Omaha to spend a summer with her cousin, Cynthia. She meets Cynthia's fiancé, Lieutenant Norman Stafford, and develops a crush on him. Norman is sent to a western fort on the Missouri River and sends Cynthia passage on a steamboat so she can join him in the spring. But Cynthia suddenly decides to marry another man. She asks Linnie to write Norman and tell him. Instead, on a whim, Linnie decides to use the passage to travel to Norman's fort. Norman is surprise and not very happy to see her. There are no other women at the fort, so no place for her to stay. There's no boat heading back east, so he can't send her back. And it would be far too dangerous for her to stay on the west-bound boat. So he "marries" her in name only and sets her up on the back room of his quarters. They get to know each other, and when the east-bound boat finally shows up, they agree that she should stay. She becomes his wife in fact, and they spend a winter and a summer together. Then, just before another winter sets in, Norman is ordered back to Omaha. It's too late for a steamboat, so he'll have to make the journey in open boats and on foot. He intends to leave Linnie at the fort, but she refuses. It's a long, cold journey that almost does her in, and when they get back to Omaha, she isn't sure where she stands with Norman. To make matters worse, Cynthia's husband has died and she's making a play for Norman. Linnie thinks she's lost her husband, but when Norman's leave is rejected and he's sent west again, it's Linnie he willingly takes along. The story is a dramatized version of the diary of an actual officers' wife. |
| My Rating: | 7 |