Satan Sanderson
Summary
A blind ward named Jessica Holmes, luminous as moonlight on old silver, stands between a stern patriarch, David Stires, and his profligate son, Hugh, whose name is already a whispered curse in the family ledger. On the cusp of death, David inks a will that bequeaths every acre and gilt frame to Jessica, thereby turning the bloodline into a penniless anecdote. Into this icy parlor strides the Reverend nicknamed ‘Satan’ Sanderson—once campus libertine, now shepherd of souls—carrying the smoke of past revels in his clerical collar. He pleads for Hugh, confessing that his own collegiate bacchanals lit the fuse of the boy’s dissolution. Jessica, trembling between gratitude and rage, levels her unseeing eyes at the preacher, accusing him of sculpting the very ruin he now mourns. Yet the heart is a trickster: her indignation feeds an illicit magnetism, and Sanderson finds himself adoring the woman who blames him. Hugh returns, contrite, is restored to favor, and marries Jessica after surgeons restore her sight—only to forge his father’s signature on a check, re-opening the wound. David roars for prison; Hugh bolts; Sanderson must decide whether grace has a second encore. In the flickering moral twilight, every character discovers that absolution is a promissory note written on thin ice.
Synopsis
The story of Reverend 'Satan' Sanderson, Hugh Stires and Jessica Holmes, a beautiful and romantic blind girl and ward of David Stires, father of Hugh. The latter is signing his will, making Jessica his sole heir, thereby disinheriting his dissolute son. Jessica protests and Reverend Sanderson protests to David on behalf of Hugh. Sanderson acknowledges that he himself was a wayward youth in college, the leader of a fast-set and looked favorably upon by Hugh, and he feels responsibility for Hugh's downfall. David Stires is obdurate and Jessca's sympathy goes out to Hugh and she blames Sanderson for Hugh's troubles. Sanderson, though, is in love with Jessica. Hugh returns home, gains his father's forgiveness, and weds Jessica, whose eyesight had been restored by a medical operation. And then David learns that Hugh has forged his name to a check. Davis threatens his son with jail and Hugh runs away and seeks Sanderson's help, again. From there the story takes a few turns.
