Melissa is Belinda's niece. She is the daughter of Belinda's oldest sister. Melissa stayed with Belinda and her parents for awhile after she finished high school. In this novel, Melissa visits the town for a short while after she has been away at school earning her teaching certificate. She plans to return to her parent's home in the west where she will seek a teaching career. At the beginning of this novel, Belinda is excitedly looking forward to the arrival of her niece on the train from the East. Later in the novel, Melissa meets and marries Walden. Although she had a crush on Jackson Brown, the man who returns to Belinda's town as the second doctor, Jackson had never returned the feelings for her. When Melissa visits the town after getting her teaching certificate, she realizes that she really doesn't like Jackson that much anymore.
