When Martha Dandridge Custis marries her second husband, George, she never suspects that the soft-spoken Virginia planter is destined to command the founding of a nation&#8212;or that she is to be &#8220;Lady Washington,&#8221; the woman at the first President&#8217;s side. Only a select inner circle of women will know the cost of sharing a beloved man with history . . . and each will draw strength from the unique treasure given to them by a doomed queen.<br><br>Seeing farm and family through each harsh New England season, Abigail Adams is sustained only by the fervent reunions stolen between John&#8217;s journeys abroad. She will face the terror of an ocean crossing to join her husband in France&#8212;and write her own page in history. And there she will cross paths with kings, commoners&#8212;and young Sally Hemings.<br><br>Just as Sally had grown from a clever child to a beautiful woman, so had her relationship with Thomas Jefferson grown from a friendship between slave and master to one entangled in the complexities of black and white, decorum and desire. It is a relationship that will leave Sally to face an agonizingly wrenching choice. <br><br>Dolley Madison, too, must live with the repercussions of a forbidden love affair&#8212;although she will confront even greater trials as a President&#8217;s wife. But Dolley will become one of the best-loved ladies of the White House&#8212;and leave an extraordinary legacy of her own.<br><br>A lushly written novel that traces the marriages tested by the demands of love and loyalty, <b>Patriot Hearts</b> offers readers a dazzling glimpse behind the scenes of a revolution, from adversity and treachery to teatime strategies, as four magnificent women shape a nation&#8217;s future.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>