A Hearing Heart

The heart conveys messages beyond what ears can hear. After the death of her fiancé, Catherine Johnson, a New York schoolteacher in 1902, travels to Nebraska to teach in a one-room school. When violence erupts in the sleepy town, Catherine saves deaf stable hand, Jim Kinney from torture by drunken thugs. As she begins teaching Jim to read and sign, attraction grows between them. The warmth and humor in this silent man transcends the need for speech and his eyes tell her all about his feelings for her.
But the obstacles of class difference and the stigma of his handicap are almost insurmountable barriers to their growing affection. Will Catherine flaunt society's rules and allow herself to love again? Can Jim make his way out of poverty as a deaf man in a hearing world? And will the lovers overcome a corrupt robber baron who has a stranglehold on the town? Romance, sensuality and adventure abound in this heartfelt tale.
Revised from an earlier published edition.