Give or Take a Pebble: The Beginning

At twenty-eight, Dr. Joshua Krump had survived drug abuse, a suicide attempt, and confi nement in a sanitarium before gaining respectability in London's medical community, but his massive debt threatened to end his practice of seven years. Krump owed his benefactor more money than what he had borrowed eleven years earlier. Before the heartless moneylender executed foreclosure on the poor surgeon there was a brutal intervention. The ogre came face-to-face with reality—his life affected fewer people than the death of a beloved seven-year-old boy. A rare disease was sucking the life out of the angelic boy and his family. The ill-equipped surgeon engaged the battle for one reason—the reward. However, the boy's twelve-year-old sister's attraction to the gawky doctor brought complications to the skirmish. His continual rejection of her advances forced her to leave town, though she never let go of her love for Krump. With his practice on sure footing Krump seemed to be slipping deeper into depression. His only friend told him that he needed someone with whom to share his success—Belinda? In mid-December he heard from an unlikely acquaintance that Belinda was returning home for Christmas. With a gold ring in his pocket, he planned to surprise her as she stepped off the train. However, delays kept him from being on-time and as his coach crept up an icy street he spied his beautiful Belinda arm in arm with a boy more her age. Where will the demons of Krump's fragile psyche lead him?