Lavender Morning (13 page)

“Tess, whether you like it or not, you and I are friends.” He paused as he searched through a drawer for a

spatula. “You need some pot holders and some new dishtowels. I’ll pick some up for you at Williams-Sonoma.”

Tess shook her head at him. “What am I? Your maiden aunt who you have to take care of? Would you

please tell me what you have to say, then leave? I have—”

“Yeah, I know, a mysterious date who hasn’t shown up yet even though it’s after ten.” He divided the eggs,

put them on two plates, and set one in front of her. “Eat,” he ordered. “I think you’re losing weight.”

“Sex burns a lot of calories. Speaking of which, I take it you didn’t score with your little Alice.”

“Alice?”

“Luke said she dresses like
Alice in Wonderland.
”

“When did you see him?”

“A couple of hours ago. Jealous?”

Ramsey snorted in derision. “Of Luke? You must be kidding. Anyway, as I was saying, my grandfather let

me read Miss Edi’s letters when I was growing up. She wrote a lot about this little girl, Jocelyn Minton, who she

was half-raising.”

“Let me guess, you fell in love with her through the letters and now you want to make her your wife and live

happily ever after. Good! Now that that’s done, you can leave.”

“Finish your eggs,” Ramsey said when she stood up. “I don’t know why you have to be so cynical about

everything.”

“Maybe it comes from spending my days with lawyers. It makes me see the world as one long lawsuit.”

“The way I see it, I help people.”

“Yeah, like with the Berners’ divorce? You and I both know that man hid his income to keep his wife from

spending him blind. He bought her that big house he couldn’t afford just to try to please her, but all she does is

nag him. If you had any conscience, you’d tell her she gets nothing and has to earn her own living. But no, thanks

to your cleverness, she’s going to walk away with it all, and he’s going to get the debt. He’ll be seventy before

he’s back on his feet again.”

“So maybe that isn’t a good example of my helping people.”

“So what is?”

“How about Miss Edi?” he asked.

“Rich old woman who paid your firm a fortune. What a hero you are! Are you here tonight to ask me to

help you get closer to this house’s new owner? For what? Marriage? A hot affair?”

“What is your hostility toward her?”

Tess pushed her empty plate away. “I don’t know, maybe it has to do with having two—not one but

two
—men come to me today to go on and on about her. What is her secret? I saw her, and she’s not a great

beauty. I haven’t heard that she’s brilliant, so what’s the hold she has over you men?”

Ramsey was looking at her with his mouth open. “You’re jealous of Jocelyn, aren’t you?”

Tess threw her hands into the air and stood up. “That’s it. I want you to leave now. And for your

information, I am
not
jealous of her or anyone else. If I wanted either you or Luke I could have you.”

Ramsey snorted. “I know you too well to feel romantic about you. Is that what your problem is? That a

man comes over late at night and isn’t dizzy with the beauty of you?”

“You’re sick, you know that?” She practically stomped to the front door and opened it. “Go home. Now.”

“All right,” Ramsey said. “I apologize. I thought it was going to be a great night with Jocelyn, but…”

“But what?” she asked impatiently, holding the screen door wide.

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“We ran out of things to talk about.”

At that, all the anger left Tess. If there was one thing Ramsey McDowell could do, it was talk. She couldn’t

help smiling. “Did you ask her what she planned to do with her life now that she’s a stranger in a town where

everyone not only knows one another but they’re related? Your cousins have to marry from outside here or

they’ll give birth to morons. Did you ask her about her plans for the future?”

“No,” Ramsey said. “I guess I didn’t think of it that way. Edilean is home to me, so I…” His head came up.

“She likes to make cupcakes.”

“Cupcakes. You had a first date with her and that’s all you found out about her? That she likes to make

cupcakes?”

“I’m not a complete idiot. We talked about other things.”

“Like what?”

“For your information, we talked about marriage.”

Closing her eyes, Tess shook her head. “I don’t know how you got through law school. You have no

brain.”

He was standing in her doorway, and she knew that her apartment was filling with mosquitoes, but she also

knew that if she didn’t give him some advice he’d never leave. “Create a cupcake emergency.”

“A what?”

“Make up something where cupcakes are needed immediately and she’s the only one who can make

them.”

“How can cupcakes be an emergency?”

“I don’t know. Talk to your sister. Kids and cupcakes go together. Let Viv work it out. And from now on,

talk to anyone but
me
about your love problems. Got it?”

“Yeah, maybe,” he said.

Tess could see that she’d given him something to think about, so she pushed him out the door and closed it

behind him.

Saturday night, she thought. This is what Saturday night in a small town was like. While she was pretending

to wait for some man who didn’t show up, she’d had to deal with a lovesick boss who didn’t know what to say

to his new girlfriend. “What does he expect me to do?” Tess mumbled. “Hold his hand and listen, then give him

advice on how to win the woman?”

And how was she supposed to do that? Tess had no idea what this woman Jocelyn Minton was like. Sara

liked her and Luke seemed to be mesmerized by her, but that didn’t tell much.

The truth was, that as far as Tess could tell, she didn’t like the woman. Or maybe it was as Ramsey said,

and she was jealous. But not jealous as he thought she was. Tess had read the legal papers in Ramsey’s office

and she knew that Jocelyn had been given everything all her life. As a child she’d been befriended by a rich old

woman who’d died and left her everything. It was straight out of Dickens.

If Tess was jealous it was because Jocelyn had been given so much while nothing had been given to Tess.

Her parents died when she was young, and she’d been raised by a grandmother who treated hate as one of the

four food groups—and she insisted on full servings of it daily. “They ruined my life,” her grandmother used to

say. “Edilean Harcourt and all of them took my life from me. I could have done something, been somebody, but

that town destroyed everything I had. If it weren’t for what they did to me, you and I would be rich now. Living

in luxury. McDowell and Harcourt. They’re the ones who stole everything.”

Tess had to shake her head to clear it of the angry old woman’s voice. She was paying her grandmother

back for all she’d received, meaning food, clothing, and shelter, so why wouldn’t the old woman’s voice leave

her?

Tess put the dishes in the washer, turned off the glaring overhead light, and went to her bedroom. She took

off the itchy white silk gown and robe, and put on the big T-shirt she usually slept in. She’d only put on the new

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gown when she’d seen Ramsey drive up. From what Luke told her today, she’d guessed that Jocelyn and

Ramsey wouldn’t hit it off well.

While Ramsey was having his picnic with the new owner, Luke had returned and visited Tess. “He’s never

any good when he’s nervous,” Luke said as he put his long legs on her coffee table and drank beer from the

bottle. Luke had never given her oh-so-practical gifts as Ramsey did. In fact, Luke had never given her anything.

Tess had a feeling that when and if Luke Connor gave a woman so much as a daisy it would mean a lot.

After Luke left, she wondered if he’d been warning her that Ramsey’s date probably wouldn’t go well—

and if it didn’t, they both knew he’d show up at Tess’s apartment afterward. Disappointment coupled with the

proximity of Tess would be more than Ramsey could withstand.

So Tess had, in her own way, prepared for Ramsey’s arrival. She put on the white peignoir set that had

cost her a week’s salary and some makeup.

She still didn’t know what had made her do that. Was it because before Jocelyn’s arrival, she was all

anyone in town could talk about? Tess had pretended she didn’t know how Ramsay arranged the dinner, but the

truth was that three women had told her in detail what Ramsey was doing. “His mother borrowed my quilt,” she

heard. “Viv borrowed my best candlesticks. You know, the ones my mother left me.”

By the time Saturday came, she knew in detail what Ramsey was planning for that night. All for some

woman he’d never met.

That afternoon Tess had been in the back garden, looking at it with regret because it was no longer going to

belong to just her and Sara and Luke. The three of them were a good group, meaning that no one stepped on

another’s toes. They knew how to give each other privacy. But now that was all over because the new owner

was going to take over the garden as well as the house, and everything would change.

When Tess turned back to the house, she saw “her” for the first time. She was walking across the grass to

Sara’s apartment and she had Sara’s sewing basket in her hand. That Sara trusted the woman with her precious

sewing basket was another strike against her. Sara certainly never trusted Tess with the thing! But then, to be

fair, it was quite possible, even likely, that there would be an emergency at MAW—something catastrophic, such

as Ken not being able to find his notes for court or the copier jamming—and Tess would have to go running.

Sara’s sewing basket might get left in the rain.

Minutes later, Luke left the workshop and was obviously in such a bad mood that he didn’t even see Tess

standing just a few feet away. She watched him get in his truck, then instead of going out the back as he usually

did, he turned left and went to the front of the house.

Tess stood still and watched as Jocelyn walked across the lawn. She had on a white dress that a nun could

have worn with impunity, and there wasn’t a crease in it. Does she ever sit down? Tess wondered.

Tess couldn’t help herself as she scurried around the house toward the front to see what was going on.

Luke and Ramsey were in the driveway, and as usual, they were having a confrontation. When Tess first arrived

in Edilean, she’d disliked the way the two of them seemed to spend their lives trying to outdo the other, but she

was used to it now. She couldn’t hear them, but she didn’t need to. She knew that one was telling the other what

to do and the other one was saying no.

When Luke went to Sara’s apartment and knocked on the door, Tess was surprised. He must know that

Sara wasn’t there.

Tess stood under the trees and watched as Luke talked to the new owner, then practically pushed his way

into the apartment. If he’d tried that with Tess, she would have pushed him back out. Interesting, she thought.

Minutes later, Ramsey rang the little bell that hung on the side of the house. Its function had long ago been

replaced by a doorbell, but the family seemed to like anything that was old-fashioned, so they used the bell

whenever possible.

When there was no response, Ramsey went into the big house, and Tess stepped farther back into the

trees. She heard the back door to the house and figured Ramsey had gone to Sara’s apartment to get Jocelyn.

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trees. S

3/16/2010 he heard the back door to the house and figured Ramsey had go

Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html ne to Sara’s apartment to get Jocelyn.

Tess didn’t have to wait long. When Luke came storming out of the apartment, he looked to be genuinely furious.

Everyone knew Luke had a short fuse, but she’d never seen him angry with Ramsey. True, they played at their

little games and loved to pretend to be mad, but they weren’t. But Luke was truly angry as he got in his truck and

sped away.

Ramsey left Sara’s apartment with his arm around Jocelyn’s shoulders, and her pristine white dress was

stained with what looked to be mustard. Tess wondered if Luke had done that. Good for him! she thought.

When Ramsey and Jocelyn were inside the house, Tess went to her own apartment. About thirty minutes

later, Luke showed up at her door for the second time that day. His handsome face was still angry. “He still in

there?” he asked, as usual, not bothering to say who “he” was.

“Far as I know,” Tess said as she motioned to the couch and he sat down while she got him a beer. “If you

like her so much, why didn’t
you
ask her out?”

“I’ve been told that she belongs to Ramsey.”

“Why would anyone say that?” When Luke just sat there in sullen silence, she put up her hand. “So don’t

tell me. I don’t want to know anyway. It’s my guess that that old woman everyone talks about—Edi—is behind

—”

“Miss Edi,” Luke said. “Show some respect for your elders.”

After that, she hadn’t talked much, but Luke had.

At first he talked about the garden, saying he wanted to put in an herb bed because that was in keeping

with the house. “But I don’t know if she’ll like it or not.”

As Luke talked, telling her everything about Jocelyn, from the way she dressed to her hair color, Tess had