title: A Love to Cherish
author: Ross, Clarissa
description: Lucy Gilmore, a failure in her bid for Broadway stardom, returned to her New England hometown to find her former love, Jack Mallet, still waiting and still the helpless pawn in his mother's ruthless game of domination.
  
  After a brief acting career, Lucy Gilmore, a lovely blonde, returns to her New England hometown to teach English and Drama in the local high school. She is worried by some changes in the town -- mainly by a plan to locate a pulp mill in an area that is now beautiful woodland. It just so happens that her father owns part of the property in question, and Lucy encourages him not to sell his share to industrialist Peter Mallet.
  
  So begins a new series of adventures for the young teacher, who soon finds herself once again involved with Mr. Mallet's son Jack, an attractive, dark-haired young man who, as a result of a childhood attack of polio, has been left with a lame leg and a limp. Lucy, it seems, is an old friend of Jack's, a budding romance between them in their high school years having been thwarted by Jack's ruthless, domineering mother Berenice, who had considered Lucy not good enough for her wealthy son.
  
  But Lucy quickly finds a number of obstacles blocking her desired reconciliation with Jack. For one thing, there is the arrogant redhead, Katherine Graham, who is chauffeuring Jack around town. She looks tough enough to get the best of any argument. Somehow, it seems odd that Jack hasn't seen through her…
  