Lavender Morning (17 page)

they were to the house. In fact, when she turned her head, she could see the entire back of the house and both

apartment doors. She saw the little white table where she’d sat with Sara and talked.

She got off her toes and looked at Luke as he studiously moved some tools around on top of an old cabinet

on the opposite wall. “When you’re in here, you can see everything that goes on at the back of the house.”

“Can you?” he asked. “I guess I never noticed.”

She glared at him until he turned to look at her, giving her a one-sided grin. Yet something else she’d

learned about him. Now that Luke was looking a bit guilty at what could possibly be interpreted as spying, she

thought she’d do what she could to get information out of him. “So who was Tess talking to on the phone today?

”

Luke walked to the door of the shop. “About three?”

Jocelyn nodded.

“Her brother. She talks to him every Sunday afternoon no matter what. You could take her to a rock

concert or have her hypnotized and if it was Sunday she’d call her brother.”

“You sound almost jealous.”

“You’re an only child like I am, so aren’t you jealous of people who have siblings to share their lives with?”

“Only child,” Joce said. “What a lovely thought. I have—” She broke off. There was no way she was going

to tell him who her stepsisters were. “Yeah, I’ve had a lot of fantasies about having sisters who were good and

kind and who actually
liked
me.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Did my remark open a can of worms?”

“If you did, let’s have Ramsey make us a casserole,” she said quickly, making Luke laugh.

“Pies. He made pies with a mud crust,” he said. “When he was seven and Sara was barely a year old, he

almost got her to eat one, but her mother caught him, and…” He looked around, as though to see if anyone was

listening. “None of us ever knew what happened, but Aunt Ellie—that’s Sara’s mother—took Ramsey into her

house, and when he came out, he looked downright green, and he never again made a worm pie.”

“I don’t know if I wish I’d grown up in this town or I’m glad I didn’t.”

“What was it like living with Miss Edi? Afternoon tea and concerts on weekends?”

“I didn’t—” Jocelyn began, but closed her mouth. Let him think that she lived with Miss Edi full-time if he

wanted to. It was too complicated to explain that her elegant mother fell in love with a man who thought what

was painted on the gas tank of a Harley was high art. Too much trouble to explain her mother’s death, her

father’s remarriage, and how Jocelyn had grown up with people who were so unlike her that she often felt as

though she were from a different planet. Until she met Miss Edi, Jocelyn knew no other world.

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though s

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Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html ew no other world.

“You didn’t what?” he asked.

She started to make up something, but his cell phone rang.

He opened it and said “Yeah” four times, then handed it to her. “It’s for you.”

“Me? But who…” Luke’s eyes told her. Ramsey.

“Hello,” she said. “Everything okay?”

“So you’re going through the garden with Luke,” Ramsey said. “I wish I’d known you wanted to see it. I

could have taken you.”

“Or I could have gone myself,” she said. “Luke works for me, remember?”

“How could I forget, since I sign his checks?”

“Do you?” Joce asked with interest. “I hate to pay bills. Could we continue this way?”

“Jocelyn, I’ll continue with you any way you want. After church today all anyone could talk about was how

pretty you looked in that pink dress. They liked the hat too.”

Luke was staring at her as though he wanted to hear every word that was said. She turned her back to him.

“Can you come into the office tomorrow?” Ramsey asked. “We can talk about the terms of the house.”

“You mean you’re planning to talk to
me
about
business
?”

“I most certainly am,” he said, and she could hear his smile. “You wouldn’t like to have lunch afterward,

would you?”

“Are you asking me out?”

“Unless you want to go to my house and eat pasta again. By the way, I need to get Viv’s chocolate pot.”

“Did she have the baby?”

Ramsey hardly paused before he laughed. “No, she didn’t have the baby and she isn’t trying to make a new

one. She wants it for some party for one of the kids she already has. Wanta go with me?”

“Sure. When is it?”

“Tuesday afternoon. One-ish. Can I pick you up? Or do you think that arriving at a party with me will make

it look too much like we’re a couple?”

“Maybe we should take Luke so it’s not too obvious about
us.
”

“He hates kids and kids’ parties. Better not take him. So how about coming to the office at eleven, then

we’ll go to lunch? Sound good?”

“Sounds delicious. I’ll see you then.”

She closed the phone and handed it back to Luke.

“Another date?”

“Business, then lunch, and on Tuesday, a party at his sister’s house.”

“What party?” Luke asked quickly.

“Ramsey said it was for one of his sister’s children. A birthday party?”

“None of the kids has a birthday now. It’s…” He trailed off, frowning for a moment, then he looked at her.

“I think I better make an appointment if I want you to go to the nursery with me to pick out the herbs. How

about tomorrow afternoon? If you can tear yourself away from Rams after lunch, that is.”

“Why do you want me to go with you to buy herbs? I don’t know one from the other.”

“Okay, then, I’ll plant some hemlock and henbane.”

She thought Ramsey was kidding when he said Luke “hated” kids, but his remark made her unsure.

“Nothing poisonous.”

“Let’s see, you told me you don’t have any preference on the herbs, but so far you’ve told me you want

lavender and nothing poisonous. What about mint?”

“I like mint,” she said cautiously. He was up to something, but she didn’t know what.

“Okay, you want the entire garden done in mint and nothing else.”

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“Not the whole thing, just some mint.”

“For your information, mint is one of the most invasive plants known, so if you put mint in the herb garden,

that’s all you’ll have. So do you want mint or not? Wait! Let me get a pad and paper, because this list of things

that you do and do not want is getting too long for me to remember.”

“All right!” she snapped. “Tomorrow afternoon I’ll go with you to buy plants. I don’t know what kind of

plants, but whatever you tell me we need, we’ll get. Why do you want me to go with you? Just to annoy

Ramsey?”

“You don’t have to go with me,” he said, his voice lowering. “You could tell Rams that you can stay at

lunch all afternoon because you have nothing else to do. Or you can tell him you have to leave because you’re

going with me to buy flowers.”

Jocelyn blinked at him a few times, then smiled. “You have a brain under those whiskers, don’t you?”

“My mom thinks so. My dad is less sure.”

“What time do you want to leave?”

“Two. On the dot. I’ll pick you up outside the restaurant.”

“How do you know where he’s taking me for lunch?”

Luke snorted. “The Trellis. That’s where he always takes his women out on the second date—if there is

one, that is. It’s in Colonial Williamsburg. He’ll order the special, then tell you you must share a piece of

chocolate cake with him. It’s great cake. The best. But it will take you until two-thirty to eat everything.”

They were back at the new herb garden site and Luke’s truck. “So I’m to tell him I have to leave at two?”

she asked, thinking about what he was saying. All in all, she liked it. “If I were a less cynical person, I’d think you

were trying to help me with Ramsey.”

“He is my cousin,” Luke said with a shrug, but he turned away so she couldn’t see his smile.

“That’s nice of you,” she said, but her voice was hesitant. She slapped at a mosquito on her arm and

decided it was time to go inside. “I think I’m done for the day.” The light was fading. “Are you going to work

much longer?”

“No, I’ll just clean up, then go home.”

She started to ask him where he lived but decided it was too personal a question.

“Tess let you keep enough food for tonight?” he asked as he scraped dirt off a shovel with a trowel, then

put it in the back of the pickup.

“Yes, but I need to buy some cookware for the kitchen,” she said. “And I need to go to a grocery store.”

“Easy enough,” he said as he put a pitchfork into the truck. “Maybe tomorrow we can—”

“Just show me where things are and I’ll find them,” she said as she started for the house. “See you

tomorrow at two.”

In the next minute she was back in the house, and the stillness of it seemed almost eerie. It was a house that

needed people. When there was one other person in it or several, the house came alive. It almost seemed to

smile. But when Jocelyn was in it alone, she wanted to run upstairs and shut the bedroom door.

She went to the kitchen and picked up a couple of oranges out of a bowl. The table was covered with

clean dishes that had contained the welcome food people had sent. Sara said that during the week the women

would stop by to pick up their dishes and to have a chat. “People haven’t been in this house in years and they’re

dying to see the inside of it,” she said.

Jocelyn had groaned, dreading the constant tour guiding she’d have to do.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sara said. “They’ll come in groups and save you from having to do too much.”

Joce had smiled weakly. Now, she turned off the light, went into the big hallway, and checked both doors

to make sure they were locked. She left a low-wattage light on in the hall and started up the stairs. Just as it was

downstairs, there was a wide hall with rooms leading off of it. One side was the big master bedroom with an

enormous bathroom, while the other side had been made into two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom.

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She took a shower, moisturized her entire body, put on her nightgown, then walked toward the bed. On

impulse, she looked out the window, parting the curtain just enough to see out. Luke’s truck was in the driveway

and the engine was running. Was he waiting for Tess? she wondered. Reaching over, she turned out the bedside

lamp, and when the room was dark, Luke slowly drove through the gates. He’d been waiting for her to turn out

the light.

Jocelyn meant to get into bed and wait a bit, then she’d turn the light back on and read a while, but the next

thing she knew a ray of sunlight was coming through the curtains. It was morning.

8

J
OCELYN LAY IN bed for a while, her hands behind her head, and looked at the ceiling of the bedroom.

The house was hers, but since she’d arrived, she’d had very little time to herself.

She glanced at the bedside clock and saw that it wasn’t even seven, and she didn’t have to be anywhere

until eleven. She’d use the time to look at the house thoroughly, not in the cursory way she had done.

She washed and dressed quickly, not bothering to blow-dry her hair, but pulling it back off her face. She

glanced at her shiny skin, thought about putting on makeup, but didn’t. Miss Edi was of the Estée Lauder school

that believed a woman should wear full makeup at every moment. Even at the end, Miss Edi had dressed

beautifully and always wore lightly applied cosmetics.

But this morning, Miss Edi’s voice seemed farther off than usual, and Jocelyn didn’t want to take the time to

“put on war paint,” as her father used to say.

She wandered through the upstairs, noting what was where. Her bedroom had the most furniture in it. The

second bedroom had a bed and a little table by it, but nothing else, and the third bedroom was empty.

At the end of the hall was a window, with a door next to it. She’d already discovered it opened to a

narrow, steep staircase that led up to another door that was locked. The attic. She remembered Ramsey telling

her that it was full of trunks containing old clothes and diaries. As a researcher, she was looking forward to

seeing those old diaries, and she wondered if the true story of Miss Edi’s David was written down somewhere.

Downstairs, she went into the living room and looked at the familiar furniture, and for a moment she was

lost in memory. She and Miss Edi had spent many an afternoon on that yellow couch. When it needed

reupholstering, they’d had a good time looking at fabric samples and choosing one with honeybees on it. They’d

talked and laughed together as they sat there, and—

Jocelyn had to leave the room, as the memories were too strong. The dining room needed a table and more

chairs. There was a downstairs bath, a smaller parlor that had a cabinet with two lamps on it, but nothing else.

She went into the kitchen, sat down at the table, and looked around. She loved the big sink, loved the

heavy pine table, but the stove was an eyesore. Holding up her hands, she formed a square with fingers and

thumbs and imagined a big, stainless steel six-burner there. “With double ovens,” she said out loud.

But it would be ridiculous to put in such an expensive stove, she thought. After all, she couldn’t cook. That