Four Women Named July

In this life, you are guaranteed nothing.
Suppose you learn you are immune to disease and the infirmaries of old age. What would you do? How would you live? – and you discover that someone wants you dead.

Julia Desjardins, an orphan who was wounded during the 1864 Civil War Battle at Monocacy Junction in Maryland, is just fourteen. She learns from the healer and seer Sister Sojourner Smith why she recovered quickly from this grievous wound and that she has a rare gift: She will age just one year physically for every five years she lives and is spared all sickness, disease, and the debilitations of age.

Now, one hundred and seventy-four years later, Julia, now calling herself Julienne Gardener, discovers that another of these extraordinary humans (identified as Amaranthines) desperately and murderously wants what she has been pursuing for more than four lifetimes: An elixir that will grant long lifetimes to humanity. Julienne quickly realizes it must be destroyed because of the ethical chaos it would cause if revealed. She also becomes conscious that longevity is both a gift and an affliction.