Lavender Morning by Jude Deveraux Read Free Book Online Page B

twenties, and she looked like a poster child for Innocence. Her face was
    a perfect oval and her skin like porcelain. Her brown hair had golden highlights that looked natural, and she wore
    a dress that could have come out of a Kate Greenaway drawing.
    Joce didn’t want to startle her so she said, “Hello” from several feet away, but the young woman went on
    sewing and didn’t look up. It wasn’t until Joce was just an arm’s length away that she saw the woman was
    wearing earbuds. Smiling, Joce pulled out the chair on the other side of the table and sat down.
    “Hello,” the woman said, not at all startled. She pulled the earbuds off and turned off her iPod.
    “Let me guess,” Joce said. “Enya.”
    The pretty young woman blinked, then smiled. “Oh, I see. I look like I’ve never seen a dirty movie in my
    life, so I must play angelic music.” She pulled the earphone peg out and turned it back on. Out blasted ZZ Top.
    “I have a hippie mother,” she said. “My father’s a doctor and as conservative as they come, but my mother likes
    hard rock and plays it as loud as she can—when my father’s not home, that is.”
    “The neighbors don’t complain?”
    “One of them did, but my mom poured her a margarita, and when my dad got home they were dancing
    together. There haven’t been any complaints since.”
    Joce laughed, still looking at the pretty young woman. “Do you get your face from your mother or your
    father?”
    “My Great-aunt Lissie. Or so I’ve been told. She used her looks to snare the richest man in town, had half
    a dozen kids, then proceeded to spend all her husband’s money.”
    Jocelyn didn’t let her face show her recognition of the name “Lissie,” the woman Miss Edi had mentioned in
    her letter. Instead, she said, “My kind of woman. Is that your dress you’re sewing?”
    “Heavens no! I couldn’t afford something like this.” She held up the garment to show Joce. It was midnight
    blue and had an intricate pattern of beads and crystals across the bodice, but several lines of beads were hanging
    loose. “I told her to be careful. I told her there were to be no trysts in the moonlight, and no fumbling in the
    backseat of the car. This dress cost thousands, and I said it had to be treated with care. But did she listen to me?
    Of course not.”
    “From the look of it, she did a lot of fumbling.”
    “I think so, and since she was banging on my door at six this morning telling me I had to fix it by tonight, it’s
    my guess that she did not fumble with her husband.”
    Joce laughed. “Are you my tenant?”
    “Oh! Sorry. I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Sara Shaw,” she said. “I live in that side and Tess Newland lives
    over there.”
    “I’m—”
    “The entire town knows who you are. Everyone’s been waiting for you since the crack of dawn.”
    “The woman at the grocery store stared at me.”
    “My mother,” Sara said. “She’s already called and told me you were on your way.”
    “And the woman on the porch with the broom?”
    “My aunt Helen. She called Mom and got a busy signal because Mom was calling me. I would imagine that
    by now the sheriff has looked up your license plate number.”
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    by now
    3/16/2010 the sheriff has looked up your license plate number.”
    Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html
    Jocelyn didn’t know what to say to that, so she just blinked.
    “Would you like some iced tea?” Sara asked. “I just made a pitcher.”
    “I’d love some, but—” She hesitated.
    “Only if it’s not half sugar?” Sara asked as she stood up, carefully rolled the dress in the big towel, then put
    it on the little white table.
    Joce could feel her face flushing red.
    “Don’t worry about it. We’re used to Yankees down here.”
    “I’m far from being a Yankee. I’m from Florida,” Joce said as she followed Sara toward the big brick
    house. “That’s south of here.”
    “Mm-hmm,” she