It is March 1940, five years after the events in the first book in the series.
Evie returns to Quail Crossings from Los Angeles by bus. One of the passengers try to have conversation with her, and when they stop, the man grabs her and tries force himself on her. Thankfully, a man appears and saves her. This man intrduces himself as Robert Smith, and when she shows him the bundle that she is holding, he discovers a baby. Robert travels in the same bus and tells him that he is returning to his late parents' fram to live there. He is from Knollwood as well, and Evie tells him that her family doesn't know that she is going back and has an illegitimate daughter.
When they reach Knollwood, Robert gets a lift from the pastor, and when they reach the farm and she tells Dovie about Joy, her baby, Dovie misunderstands that Robert is Evie's husband. Before Evie can explain the truth, Robert decides to go along with the confusion, and he tells Evie that it is the best option. Joy wouldn't live with the stigma of illegitimacy and he needs a wife. It would be a marraige of convenience, and Evie accepts.
Everybody welcomes Robert to the family, but Bill mistrusts him and doesn't like him. Evie eventually moves to Robert's farm, and he thinks that they should get married for real, so Evie and he marry in a civil ceremony. From Evie's thoughts and behaviour, I think that Joy is not really hers. When at the wedding she and Robert kiss, she thinks that it is her first kiss. We also know that she and her friend Harriet fell out in Los Angeles, and when Harriet's mother comes to see her, Evie gets nervous. My idea is that Harriet is Joy's mother, but maybe she didn't want the baby and Evie decided to be the mother that Harriet didn't want to be. I imagine that sooner or later this will be revealed.
Now Alice is eleven but she is as cute as five years ago. While in town she meets a black boy who is fleeing from some local boys. Alice shows him a place to hide, and the next day when she and Davie go to find him, the poor boy, Jacob, is all black and blue. He has been beaten up, and the culprits appear all boastful and nasty. It is Frank Kelley, who confesses to wanting the boy out of town, and he and his friend did what their parents told him to do. There is a confrontation between Dovie and the men, but thankfully, James, Bill, and Elmer appear, and they take Jacob to Quail Crossings.
Dovie has met a man, Gabe Pierce, a pilot, who looks like her late husband. The first time she sees him, the resemblance is so much that she faints. Even though Dovie tries to avoid him, Gabe seems to like her. I think there may be some romance here.
And Lou Ann, Bill's wife, is worried because after five years of marriage she hasn't managed to get pregnant. When she asks Dovie for advice, Dovie tells her that they just need time, and Bill also says that even though he wants children, he would be happy if they didn't have any as long as they are together. However, Lou Ann is not satisfried, so she goes to see Mrs Pearl for some remedies, and the woman gives him some tips like eating three raw eggs every morning or very hot peppers.
This is a sweet story like the first in the series. I am intrigued to know what will happen when the truth about Evie is discovered.
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