Catherine Marshall

She could just make out the glimmer of a knife, poised high over the open piano. "No!" she cried, and as the knife came down, she grabbed for the intruder's arm with all her might. Headstrong and independent, Christy is determined to change the lives of the children in Cutter Gap. Apparently, Christy has angered someone enough to cause a string of mysterious pranks. Miss Alice warns Christy to be careful as the pranks become more threatening. What...

"The old woman glared at Christy with fury in her eyes, "You brought the curse with you, girl! . . . Flatlanders don't belong around here." Everybody in the Cove seems to believe their new school teacher, nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston, is cursed. After all, who could explain Bob Allen's accident on his way to meet Christy? Or the lightning strike that sent a tree through the school window ... or the sinister raven soaring around Christy? Will...

"Hey, boy-" she began, and then her heart turned cold as stone. Prince was gone! Even in the twilight gloom, she could tell that he was nowhere in the pasture. Young Ruby Mae Morrison and the mission's black stallion vanish in a furious storm and Christy is determined to find them. As Christy desperately searches for Ruby Mae in the cold, blinding rain, she runs headlong into three angry moonshiners bent on revenge against anyone who might try to...

Catherine Marshall's story reveals the heartbreak and hope of foster parenting. Thirty-eight and newly married, Catherine yearned to be a mother and adoption seemed a viable option. The county's Foster-Adopt Program was affordable, so she and her new husband were confident they could adopt and parent two siblings. But nothing was as it seemed. The birth parents used intimidation and the court system to sabotage the adoption. The social services agency...

As Christy's students are preparing for a school play, she reveals her dream to act on stage. Little does she know that Dr. MacNeill's aunt is the artistic director of the Knoxville Theater. Before long, just as Christy is about to debut on stage, several mysterious incidents threaten both her dreams and her pride.

The whip cracked and the stallion reared up in pain. Christy cried in horror, "I've got to find a way to get Prince away from here!" Prince, the mission's stallion, has a cruel new owner. Christy and her students are heartsick. They desperately want to help Prince. But how? Is there a way their magnificent horse can be reclaimed?

George, Christy's younger brother, is charming and kind. But is he also a thief? Everyone is delighted when George visits Christy at the Cutter Gap Mission. But the delight ends when George reveals what he has been expelled from school for stealing. Can Christy summon the love and faith to help her brother do the right thing?

The train taking nineteen-year-old teacher Christy Huddleston from her home in Asheville, North Carolina, might as well be transporting her to another world. The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and century-old traditions. But as Christy struggles to find acceptance in her new home, some see her--and her one-room school--as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and...

Nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston has lived a life of luxury in her cosmopolitan, turn-of-the-century hometown. Determined to reach beyond her sheltered world to help others, the headstrong schoolteacher heads for the impoverished Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to teach in a remote schoolhouse. As she grapples with the ignorance and poverty of the members of her new community, she strives to make a difference in the lives of the children she...