Secret Love — Marcia Miller

A Bride Comes Home...

Blair Granson is used to being passed over in favor of her older sister, Lisa. Still, when her mother reneges on a promised trip to Mexico, Blair is hurt and disappointed--she has been looking forward to studying art there. But Lisa's ambitions, encouraged by her mother, are quite different: she hopes to meet an eligible--meaning rich--young man. Two months later she returns, triumphant, a husband on her arm. Or, is it a triumphal return? Lisa looks ill...pale and thin and jittery. The serious, considerate young man with her, Scott Stuart, is a pleasant surprise though--for Blair, anyway. Not at all like the irresponsible jet-setter she pictured from Lisa's letters. In fact, if Scott were free...But he isn't, and Blair struggles against a feeling of being somehow irresistibly drawn to him--a feeling she hasn't the courage to face until a dramatic accident forces her to look into her heart....

Twenty-year-old Blair Granson had been promised a trip to Mexico by her mother, Janice, and she was eagerly looking forward to leaving San Francisco for the summer. But Janice decided to send Blair's older sister, Lisa, whom Janice favored, with the aim of having Lisa meet a rich young man. Blair was so distraught and disappointed that her Aunt Nina decided to give Blair a job in her boutique, where she could set up a small section as a library. Somewhat consoled, Blair plunged into her newfound activities with abandon.

Two months passed, and finally Lisa returned from Mexico, a husband in tow. From her description of him in letters to the family, Scott Stuart was not at all what they had expected. He was quiet and protective, not a jet-setter as Lisa had portrayed him. And Lisa was different, too; she had left for Mexico happy and carefree; now she seemed ill and jittery. Added to this strange situation was Blair's increasing fondness for the man who was married to her sister -- a fondness that Blair was frightened of and which she tried to conceal from everyone's awareness.

An auto accident in which Lisa was injured and taken to the hospital is the turning point of this dramatic story that vividly deals with the conflict of values in a young girl's heart.

Hero: Scott Stuart
Heroine: Blair Granson