Catherine Cookson's The Cinder Path

Edward MacFell was a cruel and sadistic farmer who enjoyed hurting family and employees alike. But now he is dead, in a murder that was made to look like an accident. His son, Charlie MacFell, witnesses the murder - but protects the killer. Another witness, Ginger Slater, an embittered farm hand with blackmail on his mind. Charlie is inveigled into a disastrous marriage with Victoria Chapman, the promiscuous county belle, unaware that her sister Nellie is in love with him. Then comes the war. When Charlie tires of his sister's carping and his wife's infidelities, he signs up--as an enlisted man, and finds himself in the charge of a sergeant with an axe to grind: Sgt. Ginger Slater.