Lavender Morning

by Jude Deveraux

  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 Its function had long ago been replaced by a doorbell, but the family seemed to like anything that was old-fashioned, so they used the bell whenever possible.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. 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 to grit her teeth. Was this yet another one of those competitions with his cousin, or was it more?

  Tess put a bowl of blue corn chips in front of him.

  Luke left after about a half hour, and Tess’s instinct told her that Ramsey would stop by her apartment after he left Jocelyn—whatever time that was.

  Now, Tess creamed the makeup off her face and checked her skin in the 4X mirror. Satisfied that she saw nothing worse than yesterday, she moisturized, then went to bed. What an idiot Ramsey was! How could she have men over at night without the town knowing? Or at least men other than the two who had been in her apartment. But then, they were part of “the family,” as it was known in town. Sometimes Tess felt like she worked for the Mafia.

  Good! Tess thought. Let them concentrate on someone other than her. Let them put their attention on this Jocelyn and not see what Tess was doing.

  As she fell asleep, she wondered if this Jocelyn woman knew that her date had gone to Tess’s apartment afterward. Did she know that Luke had been there that afternoon?

  She punched at the pillow in anger. Jocelyn inherited the house while Tess got…What? She still hadn’t figured that out yet.

  Just before she went to sleep she thought, cupcakes! Did you ever hear anything so lame in your life? Maybe she and Ramsey deserved each other.

  6

  TEN MINUTES AFTER she arrived at church, Jocelyn wanted to throw her clothes in her little car and leave town. Everyone was so very nice to her, but she could hear the unspoken questions as loud as though they were shouting them.

  The big one seemed to be What are you going to do? They meant do to their precious house. It was as though they feared a wrecking crew would show up on Monday morning.

  The little church was packed, with every seat filled. When she heard the pastor make a comment about the Lord using whatever He could to get people into church, Jocelyn tried to will her face not to blush, but she couldn’t control it. She well knew that so many people had shown up today just to see her.

  She took a seat in the middle, on the left side of the aisle, and when Sara sat down by her, she nearly hugged her. “Don’t worry, it will only get worse,” Sara said when the sixth couple walked down the aisle and stared at Jocelyn.

  “Don’t make me laugh.” Joce tried to see if she recognized anyone. The woman from the grocery waved to Sara.

  “Your mother, right?”

  “Very good. I told her that if she sat down by you and asked you what you thought of organic produce I’d buy some insecticide and spray something with it.”

  “Your cruelty amazes me.” When Jocelyn saw another woman she recognized, she leaned closer to Sara. “I saw her on the porch with the broom.”

  “She’s Luke’s mother, and she fixed your bedroom for you.”

  “I thought Ramsey did it,” Joce said. “I even thanked him for it.”

  “He didn’t take credit, did he?” Sara asked sharply.

  “No, he was honest. He said he thought the ladies from church did it. I’ll have to thank her.”

  “And Luke. He carried the bed and mattresses upstairs, and he helped arrange everything.”

  Jocelyn wasn’t sure how she felt knowing that Luke had been the one to prepare her bed for her. “I can’t tell if Luke likes me or hates me—or if he’s just using me to play some game with Ramsey.”

  “Probably all of them,” Sara said as she nodded toward people filing into the church. “I know he’s worried that you’ll not care about the house. Your house means a lot to the town. People kind of think of it as their own, and they’re worried what you’ll do with it.”

  “Sell it for bricks, you mean.”

  “You do know that you can’t really do that, don’t you? Even if you sell it, you have to offer it first to the National Register of Historic Places.”

  Jocelyn wanted to make a sarcastic remark to that, but she didn’t. None of these people knew her, but she reassured herself that Miss Edi had known her well, and that’s why she’d left the house to Jocelyn. She decided to change the subject. “Is Tess here?”

  “Tess in church?” Sara gave a little laugh. “The roof would probably fly off the building.”

  “I don’t know if I want to meet her or not.”

  “She can be…acerbic, I think that might be the word.”

  “A pure bitch?” Jocelyn said, then lowered her voice. “I think I may have just talked my way out of heaven.”

  “You were talking about hunting dogs, weren’t you?” Sara asked, her eyes wide in innocence, making Joce smile. The music was starting and she picked up her hymnal.

  Ramsey slid into the pew beside Jocelyn. “Sorry I was almost late. What page?”

  Jocelyn showed him and expected him to get his own hymnal, but he took one side of hers and shared. His voice was nice and from the way he sang, he knew the words well.

  “Get your work done?” she whispered when they sat back down.

  “Most of it.”

  “Tess help you?” she asked, as though it were an unimportant question.

  “Not with the work. I talked to her about you.”

  With that disarming statement, he turned his attention to the pastor.

  After the service, Jocelyn was separated from Sara and Ramsey, and pulled into a sea of people who all had something to say to her.

  She received many invitations to dinners and barbecues, and to join clubs, and to just visit. She was caught on the church steps by three women from Colonial Williamsburg who were talking to her about joining some committees for historic preservation when Sara whisper
ed, “Give me your purse.”

  Joce kept her face on the women while slipping her small handbag to Sara. Minutes later, she looked up, and Sara was in Joce’s car, the passenger door open, and waving to her. “I’m sorry, but I have to go,” Jocelyn said. “It’s important or I’d stay longer.”

  “Let us give you our cards and you can call us,” one woman said.

  Joce took the three cards, then hurried across the sidewalk and the lawn to get to the car.

  “Shut the door quick!” Sara said as she skidded out of the parking lot in a hail of gravel. “We’re going to pave next month,” she said. “Peeling out won’t be nearly as satisfying.”

  Joce took off her hat as she pulled bobby pins from her hair and let it hang down about her neck. “That was an ordeal. Animals in zoos aren’t stared at as much as I was.”

  “Mothers have sons, and people need jobs, and charities need volunteers and money. You are open season.”

  “No, no,” Joce said, her head back. “Tell me this isn’t so.”

  “Yup, it is. You hungry?”

  “Yes,” Joce said. “Can we go to a grocery and get something? I have nothing in my house to eat. I don’t even have a skillet to cook it in.”

  “I don’t think that food will be a problem, at least not for a few days.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see,” Sara said cryptically as she pulled into the drive in front of Edilean Manor. “Uh oh.”

  “What?”

  “It’s Tess. They woke her up.”

  Standing in the driveway was the gorgeous Tess, and the phone photo hadn’t done her justice. She was tall and beautiful, and right now she looked angry.

  Sara parked Joce’s car and got out. “How bad was it?” she asked Tess.

  “What time did she leave for church?” Tess nodded toward Joce, who still sat in the car.

  “Early,” Sara said without asking Jocelyn.

  Joce got out of the car and went to stand beside Sara. Neither woman looked at her.

  “They started coming at eight,” Tess said. “They knew the damned door was unlocked, but nothing would do but for them to pound on my door and make me tell them the door was unlocked. After that I left the main door wide open, but it wasn’t enough for them. They still banged on my door.” Tess turned to look at Jocelyn. “I can’t imagine that you’re worth all this bother.” Her almond eyes were narrowed and her lips curved into a sneer.

  “And you must be Tess,” Joce said, forcing a smile. “I’m—”

  “Everyone knows who you are,” Tess snapped. “Here and in Williamsburg, they know who you are. You’re rich and you own a big house. Yeah, I’d say you’re the hit of the county.”

  “Tess, please,” Sara said, her voice pleading.

  “Please, what?” Tess asked. “Just because she sucked up to some old woman and got her money, does that mean I have to be pulled out of bed on a Sunday morning to get her food?”

  “Tess,” Sara said. “Please be nice. You haven’t even met Jocelyn.”

  Tess looked Joce up and down and obviously found her wanting. “Now that you’re so rich, maybe you can afford to do something with yourself.”

  Sara’s eyes widened, but she was silent. Tess’s anger-filled remark seemed to be more than she could handle.

  Joce gave a little smile. “You’re beautiful, but I’m nice and I won the prize. Says something about what people value, doesn’t it?”

  For a moment, both Sara and Tess stared at her.

  “Is that all you have?” Joce asked, her voice calm. “Come on, you can do better than that. An old woman left me money and a house, so I must have done something bad to earn it. You could make a lot out of that. Or can’t you?”

  Sara looked like she might faint from what she was hearing. Would the women attack each other? Was she going to have to deal with hair pulling and scratching?

  Tess gave Jocelyn a look of interest. “Where’d you learn to give it back like that?”

  “Her sisters are—” Sara began, but Joce put her hand up to stop her.

  “I listen; I learn,” Joce said, then she looked at Sara, dismissing Tess. “What were you talking about when you mentioned food?”

  “Everyone in town wanted to welcome you, so they brought food,” Sara said, as though it were a custom everywhere. “Aunt Martha—that’s Ramsey’s mother—told people to stay away yesterday, so they hit this morning. But you weren’t here before church.”

  “I went—” Jocelyn cut herself off. She wasn’t going to start the habit of telling people where she was every minute of every day. “No, I wasn’t here. I left early.”

  “So they knocked on my door to ask my permission to enter the ‘big house,’” Tess said as she looked Jocelyn up and down, as though wondering who and what she was.

  “Come on,” Sara said, “let’s see what they left you.” When Tess stayed in the driveway, Sara turned to her. “You coming?”

  Jocelyn looked at Tess in the sunlight, that fabulous auburn hair glistening, and she was tempted to tell her to stay outside. Tess reminded Joce too much of the world of the Steps. “Come on,” she said. “Maybe Sara and I can do your roots later.”

  “It’s natural,” Tess said before she thought.

  “So’s mine,” Joce shot back.

  “Well, mine isn’t,” Sara said. “If you two are going to get in a catfight, I need to call some cousins to watch. They’ll never forgive me if they miss it.”

  Joce stepped back to let Tess know she was welcome in the house. This woman is going to take some work to like, she thought, looking at Sara with longing. Why couldn’t there have been another Sara in the other apartment? On second thought, maybe she could find Tess an apartment somewhere else. In a men’s locker room, maybe. From the look of her, she’d probably love that!

  Jocelyn wasn’t prepared for what she saw in the kitchen. The table and the countertops were covered with what looked to be a hundred containers of food.

  Sara opened the refrigerator. Inside were more dishes and foil-wrapped parcels.

  There were casseroles, chicken prepared in many ways, a ham, baskets full of baked goods, cakes, pies, and bags of early produce from home gardens.

  “I can’t eat all this,” Jocelyn whispered, in awe at the sheer quantity of food.

  Tess stood to one side and watched the two women circle around the table and countertops. They didn’t seem to have even one thought of what to do about that much perishable food. The situation reminded her of MAW. Half the time those men didn’t have a clue as to what should be done. But all her life Tess had had the ability to “see” what should be done in a situation. The lawyers said she had a true gift, a rare talent.

  Sara stopped walking and looked at Tess. “What should we do?”

  Jocelyn didn’t look up but assumed that because it was her house the question was for her. “I’m to see Ramsey tomorrow and maybe if I get some money, I’ll go get a freezer, and—” She broke off when she saw that Sara was looking at Tess.

  Jocelyn looked at her too. “You have any different ideas?” She couldn’t keep the hostility out of her voice. Was it always going to be a fight with this woman?

  “My suggestion is that we eat all we want, then we put as much as we can in a car and give it away. You’ll have to keep the plates and containers, as the women will want them back, but we can give away the food, and I know where to take it.” She looked at Joce. “If you can bear to part with any of it, that is.”

  Sara looked at Joce to make a decision.

  “I like it,” Jocelyn said. “I like the idea very much.” As she looked at Sara, she opened the cabinet where Luke got a plate last night. It was empty. She knew there was a plate in the dishwasher, but they needed more. “Do either of you know if I have any plates?”

  “Luke’s outside, he knows,” Tess said.

  “Invite him and have to listen about Ramsey?” Jocelyn asked.

  “You catch on fast,” Tess said, sounding s
urprised.

  “I vote that we don’t invite anyone. Let’s have a feast by ourselves. Women only,” Sara said as she opened a cabinet on the far wall and took out three plates. “There’s not much left that Bertrand didn’t sell. My mother bought a gorgeous set of Wedgwood from him.”

  “She’ll give it to you when you get married,” Tess said.

  Jocelyn looked at Sara with interest.

  “And where am I going to find someone?” Sara asked. “I never leave this town except to deliver a dress to some woman.”

  “They have any sons?” Jocelyn asked.

  “Not any that I’d have.”

  “Sara is known around town to be the pickiest woman in the state,” Tess said. “Look at her, she’s a man’s dream. Beautiful and virginal.”

  “Not hardly,” Sara said.

  “It’s the look of the package that matters,” Tess said as she heaped a plate full of food. “You look innocent, and I look like I’ve done everything.”

  “And everyone,” Joce added as she filled her plate. “Sorry, I was just agreeing with you. So what about me? I’m not either one of those things.”

  “Wife,” Tess said. “You look like a wife and mother. So how come you don’t have a husband and three kids?”

  “Tess…,” Sara said in warning.

  “I had responsibilities,” Joce said as she made a place on the table and sat down. “I couldn’t go far away from…what was going on in my life.”

  “The old woman,” Tess said.

  Jocelyn shrugged but said nothing. She didn’t want to tell this woman more about her life than she already knew.

  The three of them sat down at the table, the food all around them, and for a while they didn’t speak.

  “I hear you bake cupcakes,” Tess said in a way that made it sound like an accusation—and frivolous.

  Joce looked at Sara. “Is it me or is everything she says touched with a nasty edge to it?”

  “It’s her,” Sara said, then looked at Tess. “Sorry, but it’s true. Usually, Tess, you save your hatefulness for the men you work for, so what’s made you get it in for Jocelyn?”