Annie's Song by Catherine Anderson

I thought my favorite Catherine Anderson was from the Harrigan/ Coulter series, but now this is on the top of the list ! Annie was always thought to be 'dumb' and her parents called her a 'moron' because she had a fever at the age of 6 and she became deaf. Well sort-of deaf, she can hear if you stand out of her sight and yell her name, she turns to look. Annie is raped in the prologue of the book by Douglas. 4 months later, her parents tell Douglas's brother Alex that she is pregnant, so her marries her because he always thought he was sterile. Alex gets Annie to trust the man who looks exactly like the man who did the bad things to her. Alex falls in love with Annie, and he buys her things, mostly music instruments, and toys because at the age of 6 she didn't have any playmates, so she made her own, out of clothes and Alex sees her 'talking' to them in his attic, and she becomes friends with the mice who live in the attic, (the year is 1890). I stayed up late so that I could finish this book, I went to bed at 2 A.M. and I had to be at work at 7:45 the next morning !! My sister read this book from our library and then had to tell me about it, and of course I had to read it !!