The Fateful Promise // Christie Comes Through — Lorena Ann Olmstead

Pretty Christie Evans knew that going to an exclusive California ski resort was a foolish extravagance. But she had promised her closest friend she would come, and besides, she wanted one last fling before starting a career as a working girl.

Christie, however, had not reckoned with the emotional cost of this dazzling holiday. Soon she was head over heels in love with dashing, red-headed Matt Hendricks. The trouble was, Matt was under the spell of a beautiful charmer named Judy. Christie's romance on skis was filled with uncertainty and danger as she raced with heartstopping speed along a path that would bring her safely into the arms of love, or else lead to a spill that would break her vulnerable young heart.

After the death of her father, nineteen-year-old Christie Evans was faced with making decisions for the first time in her life. She had never wanted for anything and always thought that her father had money, but now she realized that he had been near bankruptcy and left nothing behind. Her lawyer advised her to sell the house and the furnishings, take a secretarial course, and get a job.

Painful though all this was, Christie took the lawyer's advice and sold everything. Before she had time to think about finding an apartment or going to school, she received a letter from a close friend, Elsa Northrup, inviting her up to a ski resort in the California mountains for a week's vacation. Christie was anxious to get away, to see new sights and new people, and she knew that the vivacious Elsa would be good medicine for her.

Before long, Christie was in her car and climbing up the steep mountainside when suddenly her car skidded on an icy patch and nearly toppled over the edge of the cliff. Miraculously, Christie was unharmed, but she owed the saving of her life to a redheaded stranger named Matt Hendricks, who was also on his way to the resort and who happened along just in time.

What starts off as a much-needed vacation turns out to be the changing point in the life of a young girl never on her own before.

Hero: Matt Hendricks
Heroine: Christie Evans