Mignon — James M. Cain

A Union army invalid meets a comely Louisiana rebel and never looks back

The Union has captured New Orleans, and Bill Cresap has come to reap the profits. A school friend has a line on some easy money, and Cresap is eager to turn carpetbagger. But when he lands in the Crescent City, still nursing a leg wound from Chancellorsville, he finds that his friend has vanished and taken their start-up capital with him. Just when despair threatens to overpower him, Mignon Fournet arrives to overwhelm him instead.

A Creole widow with rebel sympathies and hopeful eyes, she has come to Cresap in desperate need. The army has arrested her father and she will do whatever it takes to find out where he's detained and what he's charged with. She begs Cresap to use his army connections to find him. Cresap soon discovers that Mignon's father shipped supplies to the Confederate commander; he could pay for treason with his life. Dazzled by the flirtatious Mignon, Cresap agrees to help free him. Although the veteran's army days are behind him, his war is just starting to heat up.