Set in 1793, in the uneasy years following the American Revolution, Before the Cabin follows Hannah as she risks her future to build a life with a man once branded an enemy. When she elopes with Georg, a former Hessian soldier, Hannah leaves behind her wealthy family and the world she was raised to inherit. As they journey westward through a fractured young nation, she must confront isolation, uncertainty, and the fragile hope of belonging. A companion to Letters to Emily and Emily's Story, two sister novels unfolding in the same era. This prequel novella traces the quiet resilience behind the choice that changed everything