The Wood's Edge by Lori Benton The Pathfinders #1 3.5 rounded to 3

[Karin]

In 1757 a British officer, Reginal Aubrey. whose wife has just lost another baby at birth, desperate to spare his wife yet another grief, swaps his dead son for the white looking twin born to a European woman who has been raised as an Oneida. During their flight from the fort, he rescues a recently orphaned baby girl he finds just after her parent were slain and takes her as their own. Haunted by the terrible deed he did in taking the little boy, now called William, he berates himself for years to come. His wife loves their son, not knowing what happened as she fell asleep so soon she hadn’t even really looked at the one she bore, but never likes Anna, the girl they rescued, whereas she is the apple of Reginald’s eye.

Lydia is a young girl when she first meets the Major and guiltily in love with him as she grows up, although as a devout Christian she feels badly about it. Good Voice mourns her son, He-Who-was-Taken, loses all of her other babies, but raises William’s twin Two Hawks. Her husband vows vengeance. Their community comes into some confusion when a missionary arrives, who chooses to live simply and to have no more than the Oneida have. The title comes from the friendship that forms between Two Hawks and Anna who see each other at the edge of the woods where she loves to to.

The first part of the novel was not particularly likable and I thought if I finished it, it would be rated two stars, but as the younger generation grew up, I found there was more to like, so am giving it a rating averaged through the book.