Flame Lily

Flame Lily is a 1994 historical romance novel by Candace Camp that serves as a sequel to her 1993 book, Rain Lily. Like the previous book, Flame Lily takes place in the fictional Arkansas community of Pine Creek (of the equally fictional Hampton County), which “lay west of the Mississippi River delta and just on the edge of the gently rolling land of central Arkansas,” a few years after the end of the Civil War. The central conflict centers upon Hunter Tyrell, who had been mistakenly reported killed in action during the war, and his former fiancée, Linette Sanders, who married the universally despised scalawag Benton Conway, for whom she serves as “the ornament on his arm.”

The book opens in 1871, more than a year after the events of Rain Lily, with the birth of Gideon and Tess Tyrrell’s son, William. Hunter’s sister, Maggie, has married Reid Prescott and is newly pregnant. She wants happiness for her brother, saying, “You can’t let Linette ruin your whole life.” However, Benton Conway likes tormenting Hunter and takes his wife and daughter, Rosemary, out to the Tyrrell farm (formerly Maggie’s residence, where Hunter now lives) to buy horses for the pair.

Linette has kept a secret from Hunter: shortly after he left for the war, she discovered that was pregnant with his child, the result of the only time they had ever had sex. After learning this, Linette’s mother pressured her into marrying Benton. They went to Louisiana for a honeymoon and stayed there for the birth of her daughter, who Linette (having passed out during labor) was told was stillborn. However, when she goes to visit Tess one day to check on the baby, she confronts Hunter with this fact. Hunter later curses himself for having left Linette “to fight some fool war that didn’t mean a tinker’s damn anyway.”

Benton hears of Linette’s meeting with Hunter. He accuses her of having an affair and beats her, also confessing that her baby was not stillborn but instead was sent to be adopted without her knowledge. Linette, enraged at the deception, packs up and leaves Benton to search for her baby, enlisting Hunter in the quest, starting with Benton’s cousin Louisa Barbour in Fairfield, near Baton Rouge. Benton, the next morning, hires a man named Packer to arrange for the pair to be followed and Hunter killed. They learn of this when Hunter captures the first man on their trail and threatens him.

After Linette threatens Louisa with a gun, they learn that her daughter was sent to St. Anne’s, an orphanage in Baton Rouge. At the orphanage, they learn that the child was swiftly adopted, but the orphanage refuses to divulge the name of the adoptive parents. However, they pay another orphan named Mary Margaret Keenan to create a scene so that they can sneak in and access the files, and when they see Sister Mathilde beating Mary Margaret later, they intervene and adopt the orphan. They learn that their baby was taken by a German couple to Fredericksburg, Texas, and they sell the jewelry Benton had given Linette to pay for the journey, taking Mary Margaret along. In New Orleans, Packer attacks the trio but is subdued by Hunter and Mary Margaret.

Meanwhile, Benton, conscious that his standing in town is threatened, arranges for Rosemary to marry a much older and richer friend of his. Rosemary refuses and flees, running into Seth Manning, the new schoolteacher, whom she has fancied. He suggests that Rosemary marry him in order to remove her legally from Benton’s power, as she is of age. After this, Benton’s standing in town plummets, and when he learns by telegram that Linette and Hunter are proceeding to Texas, he decides to intercept personally.

As they continue their travels in Texas, Linette and Hunter rediscover their love for each other, and Linette tells Hunter that Benton was never able to consummate their marriage, being impotent. But when they finally arrive at the house of the Scherer family and talk to the adoptive parents of the girl, Linette decides that she cannot take the child and put the Scherers through the same thing she experienced. Leaving the house, they encounter Benton Conway, who tries to kidnap Johanna, only to be shot and killed by Mr. Scherer.

With Benton dead, Linette and Hunter get married in San Antonio. The epilogue ends with Linette giving birth to another daughter, whom they decide to name Jo after Hunter’s mother.

For additional information:
Camp, Candace. Flame Lily. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas