Courageous

Moving to Falton wasn't a difficult decision for Jim Starks. He has friends and family there and is more occupied helping his grandfather in the clinic than running the one back home. But his life is upended one summer day when a beautiful young lady witnesses him defending himself against the drunkard, Billy Palmer. When she follows him to the jailhouse looking for the sheriff, Jim realizes she's in trouble. Intrigue sets its hook in Jim when the young lady, who won't even reveal her name, looks for his close friends and cousins, the Vandeleurs. Not only do they share this connection, but Jim can't stop his growing attachment to her, nor does he want to. As her situation comes to light and he finds out about her trouble, eerie things begin to happen. Someone lurks in the fog and shadows, incapacitating him one unfortunate morning. Was it the vengeful Billy Palmer? Or the powerful, possessive man who is chasing the young lady? Jim has another decision to make, but this one isn't quite so easy. Should he detach from her and continue his quiet, comfortable life? Or risk his own by providing her protection and offering her his heart?

Gwendolyn Bradbury never asked for Lennox McConnell's attention, but the mayor's son and powerful subjugator won't leave her alone. Forced to leave Athens with her sister, Gwen knows their only hope is to seek refuge from their great aunt, Evangeline. However, due to past familial turbulence, Gwen doesn't know if her estranged aunt will welcome her, but it is a gamble she has to make. When Gwen and Jenny hatch a plan to leave separately to throw Lennox off their trail, Gwen finds help from a kind, handsome doctor who takes her to Evangeline's but is too nosy for his own good. She finds herself with a new occupation under this handsome doctor and looks to him for comfort and courage when her sister never arrives for days on end. She makes friends and finally has no choice but to share her secrets so they can help her find her sister. As Jim allows her to make house calls to those who rely more on companionship than medicine, Gwen notices strange things. A cloaked figure and the sense of being watched begin haunting her when she's outside the clinic. After Jim's attack, the question of who did the dirty deed lingers over them like a dark thundercloud. Was it Billy Palmer, the husband of the young lady she's been tasked with calling upon? Or is Lennox warning her that he's found her and will harm whoever stands in his way to get to her?

Join Jim Starks and Gwendolyn Bradbury as she escapes the clutches of Lennox McConnell, and they face the whirlwinds of mystery, romance, foreboding shadows, and danger together.