Introduction

Unless she can trust God's love to cast out her fears, Ada may lose the heart of a good man. Ada Wentworth, a young Bostonian, journeys to Hickory Ridge, Tennessee, in the years following the Civil War. Alone and nearly penniless following a broken engagement, Ada accepts a position as a lady’s companion to the elderly Lillian Willis, a pillar of the community and aunt to the local lumber mill owner, Wyatt Caldwell. Ada intends to use her millinery skills to establish a hat shop and secure her future. Haunted by unanswered questions from her life in Boston, Ada is most drawn to two townsfolks: Wyatt, a Texan with big plans of his own, and Sophie, a mulatto girl who resides at the Hickory Ridge orphanage. Ada's friendship with Sophia attracts the attention of a group of locals seeking to displace the residents of Two Creeks, a "colored" settlement on the edge of town. As tensions rise, Ada is threatened but refuses to abandon her plan to help the girl. When Lillian dies, Ada is left without employment or a place to call home. And since Wyatt’s primary purpose for staying in Hickory Ridge was to watch over his aunt, he can now pursue his dream of owning Longhorns in his home state of Texas. With their feelings for each other growing, Ada must decide whether she can trust God with her future and Wyatt with her heart.

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Excerpt

One

Hickory Ridge, Tennessee

June 1871

Holding tightly to her worn travel satchel, Ada Wentworth stepped

through a cloud of billowing steam and scanned the rain-slicked

railway platform, looking for the woman who had promised to

meet her. Smartly-dressed travelers folded their black umbrellas

and pushed through a knot of farm wives, mill workers, and station

peddlers hawking candy and magazines. A line of buggies and

wagons waited in the heat, the placid horses swishing their tails

against a cloud of flies. A group of schoolboys jostled Ada roughly

as they passed, their languid, high-pitched accents falling strangely

on her ear.

She pulled her handkerchief from her cuff and blotted her face,

her gaze traveling from one person to the next. People aplenty, but

no red-haired woman carrying a white parasol.

She skirted a mound of baggage and wound her way toward

the agent’s office, trying to quell her growing apprehension. She’d

known Hickory Ridge wouldn’t be anything like New England,

but this bustling village rimmed with fog-shrouded mountains was

unlike any place she’d ever been. view abbreviated excerpt only...

Discussion Questions

From the Publisher:

1. At Nate’s bookshop, Ada tells Wyatt that she’d rather have contentment than happiness. Which would you choose? Why?
2. Wyatt (referring to Thackeray) asks whether achieving one’s desires increases happiness. What do you think?
3. Ada quotes her father as saying that an “invisible thread” connects us forever to our place of birth. Do you agree? Why or why not?
4. Upon her arrival in Hickory Ridge, Ada feels drawn against her will into the bonds of the community. What does community mean to you? Is there a downside to being part of a community?
5. Both Ada and Wyatt experience a distancing from God as a result of painful experiences. How did this affect their ability to grow as individuals and as a couple? How have you handled such experiences in your own life?
6. How does Lillian’s advice to Ada help in her struggle to forgive Edward? Can you share a time in your life when you were required to forgive someone? What spiritual teachings or scripture helped (or didn’t help) you to forgive?
7. Ada and Wyatt have very different ways of dealing with their pasts. How did their coping strategies affect them as individuals? As a couple?
8. Ada believed in God, yet she was unable to believe in a divine plan for her life. Have you ever had a similar experience? How did you handle it?
9. Ada is drawn to the idea of making her own way in the world, yet she fears that she may fail at it. Have you ever experienced a crisis of confidence? What was the outcome?
10. Ada’s move to Hickory Ridge turns out to be a greater blessing than she ever could have imagined. Have you ever experienced a disaster that later turned into a blessing? What happened?

Weblinks

»	Publisher's Book Info
»	Author Dorothy Love's web site
»	Connect with Dorothy Love on Facebook
»	Email Dorothy Love Dorothy is available to call-in to your book club as well as meet with clubs in the San Antonio/Austin, Texas area. Email her at [email protected] to make arrangements.

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