Nurse of Mount Juliet — Ruth Burnett

Nurse Sky MacQueen was excited. For the first time in thirty years Mount Juliet Hospital was getting a face-lifting. And in addition to impressive new buildings and ultramodern equipment, the hospital was acquiring a new surgeon. Although a native American, Dr. Montgomery Taylor had received his training at a large charity hospital in Vienna. Mount Juliet's operating rooms would reap the benefits of his expertise in the latest surgical techniques.

Gray-eyed Skye had been born at Mount Juliet--"Julie," as the hospital was affectionately called by staff and patients alike--and she had grown up in its shadow in the sleepy North Caroline town of Juliet on the hemlock-covered slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains. For the past eight months Skye had been nursing at Julie, and she was devoted to her patients on the geriatric ward. The old mountain people were a special breed--tough, self-sufficient, and stubborn--and Skye, who knew and respected their strong-mindedness, combined a generous portion of understanding and tact with her nursing skills.

But those two qualities, so essential in dealing successfully with Julie's cantankerous elderly patients, proved to be totally lacking from the new surgeon's professional manner. Within hours after his arrival arrogant young Dr. Taylor had the patients up in arms and the staff members shaking their heads. As tensions mounted, Skye resolved to speak her mind to the dark-haired physician--never dreaming that she risked losing her heart.