Nobody' Child by Elizabeth Dejeans

 Elizabeth Dejeans has a way with phrases and builds multiple intriguing characters. The story takes place in the very early 1900's on a Southern ridge where two old and proud families (the Pennimans and the Westmores) live on neighboring properties divided by a history of hatred and woods and mine banks. Ann is a youth of the poorer Pennimans. She falls in love with the only person who ever seemed to care about her... Garvin Westmore. Yet there are twists and turns in the storyline so that you are surprised to find this is no Romeo and Juliet tale. When the heads of each family return home after years away (Ann's estranged father to his family, Garvin's much older brother to his family), Ann still feels like an unloved misfit in her own home. She has been secretly meeting Garvin and now becomes a secret close friend of his older brother. She has a very close friend in an older deformed woodsman, Bear Brokaw, who would do anything to protect her. Bear is loyal and protective of both families, and seems to be the only one who knows all that lies behind the mysteries that spark and flash throughout the book. The main character who is rather suspicious is Nickolas Baird. The author seemed focused on him, but the ending explained why and ccatches the reader by surprise.