Hidden Jewel

Raised in a New Orleans mansion filled with kindness and laughter, Pearl Andreas dreams of going to college and becoming a doctor. With all the finest families wishing her well, her high school graduation party is almost as festive as Mardi Gras itself. But even a famous jazz band's beat can't drive away her fear that she will never know the magic of romantic passion, or the truth of her family's buried secrets. Yet her summer job as a nurse's aid in an elegant old hospital is as facinating as she hoped it would be...and an experienced intern is eager to share his friendship with her. But the sultry Louisiana heat cannot dispel her family's sinful legacy, or the cruel accident that befalls one of Pearl's twin brothers. Then the bayou that caught him in its spell beckons to her mother, Ruby, who flees, tormented, back to her Cajun roots. With Pearl's other brother deathly ill, and her father retreating into his own bourbon-soaked world, Pearl's cherished dreams swirl away with the hurricane winds. Seeking her mother and the shocking truths of her heritage, she finds a blessed refuge in the arms of a Cajun man, the gentlest friend she has ever known. But only when the storm clouds clear can she savor the spring time sweetness that always, always seems beyond tomorrow.... Copyright 1995 by Virginia C. Andrews Trust. Cover and stepback art by Lisa Falkenstern. Published by POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.