Beyond These Hills by Sandra Robbins

stared at the woman in the photograph and frowned. Lucy had given him the picture after dinner on his last night at home, and he’d promised her it would have a place of honor in his room. Now that he was here in the Cove, he wasn’t so sure he should have done that.
    Lucy really was a beautiful woman and a very rich one, with family who had helpful contacts in the political world, as his father was constantly reminding him. She and both their families fully expected him to propose. The perfect wife for him, they all said. A woman who could be a great asset in building her husband’s political career.
    If his father had his way, Andrew would not only marry Lucy, he would use every one of her contacts to help him climb the ladder of elected office all the way to Washington. There was only one thing wrong with his father’s plan. It wasn’t what Andrew wanted.
    Andrew closed his eyes and shook his head. Why couldn’t he make his father understand that? He’d told him over and over, but his protests did no good. Maybe he hadn’t been able to make his father understand how he felt because he hadn’t figured out yet what he did want in life. He was twenty-four years old with a degree inengineering from Virginia Military Institute, and he was drifting through life without a clue where he was going.
    He’d hoped his summer in Cades Cove would give him some time to think and figure out his future. He’d been in the Cove for less than a day, and he already had more questions than he’d had when he arrived. Already his expectations of the people living here had been shattered. The Martins and the Jacksons were nothing like his family. They didn’t have the wealth his father had accumulated, and the Martins’ cabin couldn’t begin to compare with the large home his family owned in the rolling Virginia countryside. Yet they had something his family didn’t. They were happy and content with what they had. And their love for each other was evident in every word they spoke and every look they gave each other.
    Now he’d come to take their way of life away from them and send them into an unknown world outside their mountain valley. The thought squeezed the breath out of him. How could he do that to them? How could he hurt Laurel?
    He glanced down at the picture he held of the woman who was about to become his fiancée. His hands trembled. The ridiculous thought popped into his head that he wished the face smiling at him was a dark-haired beauty with a long braid and flashing brown eyes.
    His hand tightened on the frame, and he closed his eyes. “Mountain Laurel,” he whispered.
    There might be a lot of things he was unsure of in his life, but one thing he was certain about. He had to know her better. No matter what she said, he intended to do just that. He didn’t know how, but he would figure out a way.

    The afternoon quiet made Laurel sleepy, and she nodded in the rocker on the front porch of her grandparents’ cabin. Noah had left,her father and grandfather had taken her brothers and driven over to the site of Cecil Davis’s cabin to see if it had been torn down by the Park Service, and her mother and grandmother were in the kitchen discussing a dress pattern. She and Granny had sat beside each other for the last thirty minutes without speaking.
    Laurel took a deep breath and straightened in her chair. “Are you okay, Granny?”
    â€œI’m fine, child. I just been a-sittin’ here soakin’ up my mountains. It’s one of my fav’rite things to do.”
    Laurel chuckled. “I know.”
    Granny rocked a few times before she spoke again. “It shore has been a beautiful Sunday in the Cove.”
    Laurel nodded. “It has. Everything is so green, and the air smells so good. It gives me a happy feeling.”
    Granny’s eyebrow arched and she directed a somber stare at Laurel. “Are you sure you feel good? I