Lavender Morning by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online

Road, then drive through the town until she
    ended up at her new/old house.
    McTern Road was easy to find, but she thought there was a mistake because it meandered through forest
    that seemed to have been there since the earth began. She’d read that Edilean was in the middle of a nature
    preserve, but she hadn’t expected it to be this close to primordial forest.
    She moved to one side as a couple of men in a big black truck pulling a fishing boat with two motors on the
    back rushed past her. They waved their thanks for giving them the right of way.
    Edilean Road was clearly marked and she was glad to see that the surface was well maintained. She’d been
    a little concerned that it would be a gravel road with weeds down the center.
    About a mile before she reached the town, the wild-looking forest gave way to specimen oaks and beeches
    and big sycamores. She didn’t have to be told that she had entered land that at one time had been part of a rich
    plantation.
    When she reached the center of Edilean, she paused for a moment to look at it. The Web site had been
    only partially right. The town was half as big as it seemed in the photos, but it was twice as charming. Big willow
    trees hung over the street so that all the parking was in the shade. There wasn’t a new building anywhere, and the
    old structures had been maintained beautifully.
    The church was on her left, and on impulse, she turned right so she’d go through the heart of the place. She
    wanted to see the “park-like” areas that the original Edilean had designed, and she wanted to see that oak tree.
    Another left took her to the main street, Lairdton. Joce had seen that nearly all the street names were of
    Scottish origin and the road through the middle was Lairdton. Since “ton” was an old way to shorten “town,” that
    meant that Angus Harcourt had named the street Laird’s Town. She guessed that back in the eighteenth century,
    the stable lad, Angus Harcourt, had raised himself to being the laird of a clan and wanted people to know that he
    owned all of it.
    Jocelyn saw an ice cream parlor that looked like something off a movie set and a store of used books.
    “Gold mine!” she said aloud. Out-of-print books were some of her favorite things in life.
    She saw a little grocery with produce in a bin in front, and a woman wearing a long skirt with a tasseled
    belt. There was a bandana tied around her head and her shirt had been tie-dyed. “Wonder if she went to
    Woodstock?” Jocelyn muttered.
    There was the usual store full of old furniture and some other businesses.
    And in the middle, on a big, grassy circle, was an enormous oak tree. There were half a dozen benches
    under its shade and two teenagers were kissing, while some younger kids were laughing at them.
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    The last two houses before the road disappeared into overhanging trees were the ones in the photos on the
    Internet. They were big, white, and looked inviting. In front of one a woman was sweeping the porch, and as
    though she knew who Jocelyn was, she halted her broom and stared.
    Jocelyn was so absorbed in looking back at the woman that she almost missed the turn at the end of
    Lairdton. One block down was a sign that said TAM WAY. She glanced in her rearview mirror and saw that the
    woman was no longer on the porch. She probably went inside to start the gossip line. What would they say?
    That the outsider is here to take over our beloved Miss Edi’s house?
    Jocelyn drove slowly down the country road. There were only three houses along the way, and unless she
    missed her guess, they’d once been part of the plantation of Edilean Manor. She could see that there were old
    sections on the houses, but they’d been remodeled and expanded over the years.
    When she came to some stone columns that were nearly hidden by vines, she knew she’d reached it. There
    was a little marble plaque in