Tenderness
Nurse Jesse Forbes first meets Wade Simmer when she rides out in 1902 to combat scarlet fever among rural families outside Harpersville, Tenn. Wade is considered somewhat dangerous: he is a loner and folks suspect he might be "The Looker," a man who has been breaking into homes and blindfolding and fondling women. Jesse finds that Wade is a charming, if mercurial man who seems dedicated to obtaining an education for Jody, a young black boy he has taken under his wing. Jesse returns to town to discover that her father, Dr. Hollis Forbes, has hired Louella Lindstrom to be a housekeeper and help care for Jesse's half-siblings, Susan and Todd. Louella, a "greedy, manipulating" woman, conceals her poisonous personality from Hollis, on whom she has designs. Jesse is outraged that a mere housekeeper has such aspirations--an intriguing contrast to the book's benevolence toward Jody's hopes. When Garlock's ( A Gentle Giving ) story stays with simple, small-town characters and events, like Jesse's nursing and Wade's hesitant courtship, it is fairly successful (the contrived "Looker" subplot aside). But her attempts to make Louella a major criminal fall flat.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.