Almost — almost there! A very few minutes more, with the train hurtling and whistling past the wintry prairie farms — in minutes she would be there!

Cherry stood up unsteadily in the train aisle and pulled her luggage down from the overhead rack. She straightened her khaki hat on her black curls, straightened her Army Nurse’s jacket, drew on her leather gloves. Then she sat on the very edge of her plush chair. The train was slowing down now. Johnson’s big barn and the outskirts of Hilton skidded past. Cherry’s cheeks were very red, her dark eyes brilliant.

“New York — London — Panama — the Pacific — I’ve seen them all — I’ve flown over Europe — ” Cherry thought, ” — but — well, Hilton, Illinois, I’m coming home!” For this was the destination and the day she had been dreaming of.

It was a hot afternoon at the end of August. The whole Midwest town of Hilton looked wilted. Even this tree-shaded block, and the Ameses’ big, gray frame house and lawn, wore a dusty, tail-end-of summer look. Cherry, sitting forlorn on the porch steps, debated whether the long summer ever would be over.

“Of course, summer is my favorite season,” she argued to herself. “But I’ve had enough of doing nothing. What I want is a new fall hat and new, exciting things to do!” She wrinkled her nose as if trying to detect any first autumn briskness in the air.

The hot breeze carried to her only the scent of over-ripe greenery. Cherry sighed and pushed her black curls off her forehead, off the back of her too-warm neck. She fanned her red cheeks, muttering, “Where, on, where is that mailman?”

Was this love in disguise — or a threat to her future?

When Nurse Delora Lambert boarded the train for Chicago, she left behind everything she knew and loved. Behind her was the unwanted sympathy of friends who told her it would only be a matter of time before she forgot she’d been jilted two weeks before her marriage.

Would her new job give her the incentive to start anew? And could the unexpected attention of two handsome new acquaintances threaten her firm resolve never to fall in love again?

She was on call to an ungrateful family and off-limits to love…until her Prince Charming–a handsome doctor–set her free.

Her sister was too beautiful and too spoiled for her own good.

Her mother dabbled in mysticism on Rita’s salary.

Rita Ambler was young, beautiful…and a Cinderella Nurse

“Give it up,” Glenn Seabrook had said. “They’re using you, Rita. They’ll never change.” But she couldn’t abandon her family. And she lost Glenn. It all seemed so long ago. Before she became the wife to an alcoholic, mother to a son–and widow. At twenty-four, life held no more surprises for Rita Ambler.

Then came the accident that changed everything. That thrust Rita Ambler into the arms of Dr. Lester Wyman and out of the reach of his new protégé, Dr. Glenn Seabrook…the only man she had ever loved.

Am I “off-limits to love?” How would I go about finding out? Is there a list posted somewhere?

Karen Shannon, R.N., was dismayed to hear her sister Rosemary had been hurt in an accident. When the young nurse took a leave of absence from her much-loved city hospital and returned to her small hometown, she was prepared to do everything she could to help Rosemary. But Karen was not prepared to lock horns with Rosemary’s doctor, attractive, arrogant Adam James.

Adam had often teased and embarrassed Karen when she was younger, and now he was even more difficult. For he was warm and charming one moment, making her fall in love with him. But just as she was ready to give up her newfound city life for him, he taunted her with hatred.