Lavender Morning (32 page)

Slowly, Jocelyn stood up and looked down at herself. Miss Edi would be appalled, but she had on a new

pair of jeans—Sara had sold them to her from the wholesale clothes she was buying by the truckload—and a

dark pink shirt. Was her shirt too formal? Should she change? Into what? A halter top? Something with spangles

and tassels?

Laughing at herself, she ran down the stairs and into the kitchen to go out the back door, but she paused,

then ran to the freezer, grabbed a pack of pot roast, and tossed it into the microwave. “Might as well be

prepared,” she said as she went out the door.

“Hi,” she said as Luke rammed the shovel into the ground and pulled up a huge hunk of dirt.

“This place is a mess,” he said. “Look at the weeds growing here. They’ve probably established themselves

until I’ll have to burn them out.”

“With your bad temper?” she asked without a hint of a smile.

“Flamethrower breath,” he said, still frowning, then he jammed the shovel in the ground and glared at her.

“Look! I’m married. I’m sorry I didn’t ask if that was all right with you. For some stupid reason I thought I was

your gardener, not your boyfriend. The whole town thought you were coming here to marry Ramsey. You were

going to at last connect the families of McDowell and Harcourt.

“I don’t know what was wrong with my not knowing that I couldn’t talk to you because I was married.

And if I may remind you, that’s
all
I did. I apologize. I live alone. Sometimes it seems like every person who

lives in this town is related to me, so what’s to talk about? Our childhoods? How we used to skinny-dip in your

pond?

“So put me up against a wall and shoot me, but I talked to a woman who was
not
my wife. Who, by the

way, I haven’t seen in so long that I hardly recognized her.

“So now everyone in town is angry at me. My father’s half in love with you; my mother is so mad that she

won’t invite me over for dinner even once a week, so right now I’m at the mercy of Ingrid and a microwave.

And the church sent the pastor over to have a talk with me about infidelity and about corrupting minors. Maybe

he means Ingrid, but thanks to enough Botox to give her the plague, she only
looks
fourteen.

“So I came over here to dig. Nobody else in town will let me near their gardens, but I
need
to work with

the earth. You have any problem with that?”

“You like pot roast?”

“Pot roast?” he asked dumbly.

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“With carrots and Worcestershire sauce. I have your mom’s recipe.” She put her hand up. “If you start

crying, you can’t have any.”

Luke pulled the shovel out of the dirt and tossed it onto the back of his truck. “Why do I feel like I’m the

object of some plot?”

“Join the club,” Joce said. “Your grandfather is using me to get you away from the…I want to quote him

exactly…‘that grasping little gold digger he married.’ Yeah, that was it.”

“Shouldn’t you be keeping this a secret between you and my grandfather?”

“Are secrets allowed in this town?” she asked as they neared the house. “I thought there was a law against

them. Keep a secret and get put in jail. On the other hand, your cousins kept the secret of your being married so

well that not even Tess knew about it. I hear she yelled at Ramsey so long and loud that they had to repaint his

office.”

He blinked at her. “I think you’ve lived in Edilean too long.”

“But you came back to it from wherever you were, doing whatever you were doing…” She looked around

to see if there was anyone near, then lowered her voice. “Up north.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“Did you know that your right eyebrow twitches on the tip when you lie?”

“No, that’s hunger.”

“Whatever it is, you and everyone else have again jumped over some big secret about you. I mean, other

than the fact that you’re married, that is.”

“About to be unmarried,” he said as he opened the door and let her go in first.

“Don’t tell me you at last had the courage to file for a divorce.”

“Annulment. We haven’t spent enough time together to call it a marriage.”

“And she committed fraud,” Joce said softly. “You thought you were getting one kind of woman and she

turned out to be something else.” Joce politely left out the truth, that she’d used her pregnancy to get him to

marry her, then had an abortion.

“Yeah,” Luke said, “but maybe I should have tried harder. Maybe I should have…”

“So she came back to see if you two could get back together?”

“More or less,” he said as she handed him a beer.

“And how’s that working?”

Luke gave a one-sided grin. “Not so good. How come you aren’t still mad at me?”

“Your grandfather said that if I talk to you he’ll let us have part two of Miss Edi’s story.”

“That the only reason?”

“Only one. As I’m sure you know, I’m trying to write a book about Miss Edi, but I can’t find a lot of

information. I need those stories.”

“So it’s just work, is it?”

“Just work,” she said, but she was smiling.

“I guess you just want to read what must be a very romantic story.”

“Of course I want to hear what Miss Edi did. I always assumed she was a virgin.”

“Why’d you think that? Her David get wounded in the wrong place?”

“I couldn’t exactly ask her that, now could I? Did you wash your hands?”

“No. Is that really my mother’s pot roast?” he asked as he washed his hands.

“It is if she makes it by the recipe, but maybe she left a secret ingredient out of it. Maybe I should have put

a few borage flowers on top.”

“Getting sick of the cupcakes?”

Joce rolled her eyes. “Your dad and Tess are starting to talk about opening a store in town. Between

Sara’s upscale dress shop and Tess’s bakery, Edilean is going to turn into SoHo.”

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Sara’s u

3/16/2010 pscale dress shop and Tess’s bakery, Edilean is going to turn into

Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html SoHo.”

“That is a very unfunny joke.”

“Maybe the Steps and Ingrid could do some photo shoots here. They could languish in the back of your

pickup wearing Armani. It would be a great setting. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Could you stop it with Ingrid? That’s over.”

“No it’s not. You’re still married until you have the paper saying you aren’t.”

“Does that matter to you?” he asked.

“No, of course not,” she said quickly as she used a pot holder to remove the big pouch of pot roast from

the microwave and put it in a bowl.

“Have you ever kissed Ramsey?”

“I really and truly don’t think that’s any of your business,” Joce said.

“I have a reason for asking.”

“Yes, I’ve kissed him at least a thousand times. Truly a magnificent experience.”

Luke was leaning against the sink, the beer in his hand. He set it down, then walked toward her without

saying a word.

“Let me get some silverware and—”

He put his hand under her chin and tipped her face up to his, then he kissed her. It was a gentle, sweet kiss,

but it made her knees start to buckle.

When he pulled back, her heart was racing, and she wanted to put her arms around his neck and continue.

“Do you understand now?” he asked as he stepped away, not touching her.

“Understand what?” she asked.

“About you and me. About why my grandfather had you to his house for lunch, why Ramsey was sent out

of town, why Ingrid was brought back into my life.”

“You want to stay with her?”

“I need to end it legally between her and me. She can fight her own battles with the big shot in New York.”

“You know about him?”

“Did you think I thought she came back here out of
love
for me? I married her because she was carrying

my child and she—” He looked away. “I don’t want to relive that. As soon as MAW can get the paperwork

through, the marriage will be annulled, then I plan to do some ‘ardent courting.’”

“Ardent, huh?” she asked, grinning. “And how would that start?” She stepped toward him.

“It’s going to start out with no touching until I’m no longer married. And until you realize that I’m not like

your father.”

“What?”

“You said I was like your father.”

“I know,” Joce said, and she stood up straighter, no longer leaning toward him. “But—”

“No buts. We’ll start over. So what devious plan did you and Gramps come up with to get me to do what

he wants me to do?”

“First, you have to take golf lessons,” she said as she put a huge helping of pot roast and vegetables on a

plate and served it to him.

“What?” Luke asked in horror.

“Just a few. Twenty or so, then he’ll give us the second part of the story.”

“And what do
you
have to do?”

“Pass muster of
all
your many relatives, make the town believe I’m worthy of a house they think is theirs,

live up to comparisons of Miss Edi, be—”

“Okay, I get the idea. How are you doing so far?”

“What do
you
think?”

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He gave her a look of such lust that Jocelyn could feel her hair roots becoming warm.

“What’s going on in here?” Tess asked from the doorway. “You two planning on giving Sara a run for her

money? Watch out for carpet burns and splinters.”

“Are you talking about what I think you are?” Luke asked, sounding very prudish.

“Whatever fits your imagination,” Tess said as she smiled at Jocelyn.

“Do you need the kitchen?” Joce asked. Luke was halfway through the plate of food.

“No,” Tess said, “I came by to deliver a gift to the two of you.”

“So who knows we’re in my kitchen together?” Joce asked.

“Everyone who saw Luke drive his truck down Edilean Road heading for here knows.”

“Which means the entire town,” Luke said, but he seemed to expect it.

“So what’s the gift?” Joce asked.

“Oh, yeah.” Tess stepped back into the hallway for a moment, then returned with a big picnic basket with a

bow on the handle.

“Did you and Jim do that?” Joce asked, smiling.

“Why would we?” Tess asked.

“Because you two use
her
kitchen, dumping all the expenses onto Joce, but you and that tightwad father of

mine keep all the profits.”

“Oh, that,” Tess said as she shrugged. “But, no, it’s from Dr. Dave.” She put her hand on the back of

Luke’s chair. “So how come Jim and his father-in-law can’t stand each other? Jim is so sweet. I can’t

understand—” Pausing, she patted Luke’s back. “Are you all right?”

“No one’s ever called his father ‘sweet’ before,” Jocelyn said. “Luke and his mother team up against the

dear man.”

Luke groaned as he kept eating. “My grandfather—”

In the next second, Luke and Jocelyn looked at each other, their eyes wide as it hit them who had sent the

picnic basket. Instantly, they made a dash toward Tess. Luke got up so fast the chair fell backward and hit the

floor.

Tess’s eyes widened, then she started running toward the front door, afraid they were going to stampede

her.

“The basket!” Jocelyn yelled. “Leave it!”

Tess bent as she kept running, put the basket on the floor, then went out the front door, slamming it behind

her.

Joce and Luke attacked the basket with both hands. Packets of cheese, a slim loaf of French bread,

containers of salad, and a thermos were hurriedly put on the floor. In the bottom, wrapped protectively in a

plastic bag, were the yellowed pages that Joce had seen at Dr. Dave’s house.

She and Luke grabbed them at the same time, lifted them, then looked at each other.

“We have to be sane about this,” Luke said.

“I agree,” Joce said, nodding, but not releasing the pages.

“Food. Outside. You read. I dig.”

“Perfect,” she said as she kept one hand on the pages, the other putting the food back in the basket.

When everything was back in place, Luke narrowed his eyes at her. “You have to let go.”

“No,
you
have to let go.”

“So when will your book be finished?” Luke asked, sounding as though he were just making conversation

and meant to stay there all day, never releasing his side of the manuscript.

“As soon as you let me go so we can read this!”

Luke couldn’t repress his smile as he let go of his end of the manuscript. “Okay, but you don’t get out of

my sight.”

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“I think I can handle that,” she said suggestively, and Luke’s smile grew broader. He took the basket in one

hand, and as they went through the kitchen he got the plate of his mother’s pot roast, which he hadn’t finished.

Ten minutes later, they were outside and the food was spread around them. Luke sat on one side of the red

and white cloth his grandfather had included in the picnic and ate while Joce reverently opened the old pages.

“Ready?” she asked Luke.

He nodded. “Stop talking and read!”

She looked down at the pages and began.

17

LONDON

1944

S
IR, I RESPECTIVELY decline this assignment,” Edi said, her eyes straight ahead, her spine rigid as she