Lavender Morning (9 page)

put out for her, and the new, freshly washed towels. If royalty had visited Edilean, there couldn’t have been more

of a fuss made.

Luke didn’t know why it all made him feel angry, but it did. What did they know about this woman? Except

what she looked like in a bikini, that is.

When she was inside the house, Luke left the stables and cleared away his tools. His truck was parked in

back and he tossed shovels and loppers in with a bang. If she came out and had something to say about…about

anything, he’d tell her he was quitting.

He got in the truck, started it, and drove to the road that went out the back of the property, the servants’

exit. But on impulse, he turned toward the front of the house.

Just as he got to the gate, Ramsey pulled in in his black Mercedes sedan and blocked the exit. Luke just

wanted to leave, but he could see that Rams wasn’t about to let him pass. When his cousin put his window

down, Luke stuck his head out the truck window.

“Have you seen her yet?”

“Who?” Luke asked.

“Miss Edi’s ghost. You know who I mean. Have you seen her?”

“Maybe.”

“So what’s she look like?”

“Bad. Real bad. She’s so ugly I had to use a mirror to look at her,” Luke said.

“That good, huh?” Ramsey said. “I was hoping so. I was a little worried about…Nothing. I wasn’t worried

at all.”

“Would you move that gas guzzler of yours and let me by?”

“I need your help,” Ramsey said. “Aunt Ellie said Sara’s with Jocelyn, so I want you to get Sara to keep

Jocelyn busy for twenty minutes while I set up.”

“Set up?” Luke asked. “What are you talking about? Are you planning fireworks?”

“Maybe,” Ramsey said with a grin. “She knows I’m coming and I’m bringing dinner, but I don’t want her to

see me lugging this stuff out of the car and hauling it into the house. Hey! I know. I’ll go talk to Jocelyn and
you

set up for me. You know how to chill champagne, don’t you?”

“Put it in the creek with the beer,” Luke said as he backed up his truck. What the hell was up with this

whole town? he wondered. First his mother tells him to stay away from this woman, then Ramsey wants him to

play butler.

When they got to the wide, graveled area in front of the house, they parked their vehicles by Jocelyn’s

silver Mini Cooper and got out. Ramsey was in black trousers, white shirt, and blue tie. He pulled the tie off and

tossed it onto the front seat of the car. “What a day! I planned to be here an hour ago, but old man Segal nearly

drove me crazy. He and his son had another fight, so the old man changed his will again.”

Ramsey opened the back car door, pulled out a huge picnic basket, then looked up at the windows of the

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house. “You don’t think she’s watching, do you?”

“Why are you asking me? You obviously know more about her than I do.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Ramsey asked. “You have a falling-out with your latest girl?”

“Never has happened, never will. Can you tell me why you’re so interested in this woman?”

“I think she may be the one.”

“Not again,” Luke said with a groan.

“This girl spent most of her life with Miss Edi. She spent her weekends at the ballet. She can play the piano

and dance a waltz. And she has a brain.”

“So that means she’s someone you can show off at the country club and at those benefits they give over in

Williamsburg.”

“If by that you mean I’d like to meet someone with an education, who also happens to be beautiful, yes.”

Luke glanced up at the windows. “Sounds like I
should
get to know her.”

Ramsey snorted. “You’d probably scare her to death. Or she’d faint at the smell of you.”

“A lot of those girls like bad boys.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. Bad boy. Give me a break. Just go to Sara’s, knock on the door, and tell her to

keep Jocelyn busy for about twenty minutes. I’ll ring the bell when I’m ready. Think you can do that?”

Luke started to tell him that Sara wasn’t home, and that Jocelyn was in her own house, but he didn’t. His

mother had asked him to be nice to the new owner. She didn’t say anything about driving Ramsey crazy. In fact,

annoying his cousin was Luke’s favorite game in the world.

“Sure,” Luke said, trying to look grumpy, but he was smiling on the inside.

Jocelyn looked at the little clock on the bedside table and saw she still had thirty minutes until Ramsey was to

arrive. She was already so nervous she felt like a teenager going on her first date. After Sara left, she’d made a

quick run-through of the house and seen that the rooms had not been altered. As she’d been told, what little

furniture there was in the rooms was from Miss Edi’s house in Florida. There were no knickknacks, just empty

cabinets and shelves. Three of the rooms contained a rug and four or five good pieces of antique furniture, but

nothing else. The kitchen was still in the 1950s, a bit better than Sara’s, but not much. She liked the huge sink

and the big pine table, but thought the stove would benefit by being turned on its back and having flowers planted

in its belly.

After her cursory look through the house, she wrestled her suitcase up the stairs and began to get ready for

her date.

She’d been delighted when she saw the bed with its clean linens and the bathroom that was filled with

towels and beautiful soaps. She didn’t know who had prepared this welcome, but she certainly wanted to thank

them.

She took a long shower, washed her hair, then blow-dried it. She got out her new white cotton dress with

the Battenberg lace along the bottom of the skirt and knew it would be perfect for tonight. While still in her robe,

she heated her little travel iron, then set about ironing every wrinkle out of the cotton. Miss Edi had been a

stickler for well-ironed clothes. She didn’t believe in permanent press or even knitwear. “You can tell a lady by

the quality of her clothing and how well it’s maintained,” she’d said many times.

When Jocelyn finished dressing, she thought, Now what do I do? Her only thought was to see if Sara had

come home. She’d left Sara’s dishes and sewing box in her own hall, so maybe she should take them back now.

Minutes later, she was in Sara’s apartment—she’d left the back door unlocked—but she wasn’t home. Just

as Jocelyn put the dishes down, there was a knock on the front door. She wasn’t sure she should answer it.

After all, it was Sara’s house. But then it was also her own house.

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Jocelyn opened the door to see a tall, dark-haired man standing there. He had on jeans and a dirty T-shirt,

and he hadn’t shaved in days, but these things didn’t detract from his beauty. He had dark green eyes above a

nose that could only be described as patrician, and his full lips were finely chiseled above a well-formed chin.

Sara had said he was “beautiful” and he was.

“You’re the new owner.” It was a statement, not a question.

His voice was deep and rich, just as it had been on the telephone, and she was sure she’d never seen a man

she was more attracted to. “Yes, I am. And you’re Ramsey.”

“Ramsey? Lord no! He’s a lawyer. Do I look like a lawyer?”

“Oh,” she said, disappointed. She looked away to try to conceal her attraction to him. “No, I guess you

don’t look like a lawyer. You’re here to see Sara, aren’t you? She’s not here.”

“I know. I saw her leave.”

She turned back to look at him, still standing in the doorway. “If you know she’s not here, why did you

knock on the door?”

“I’m your gardener, Luke Connor.” He was watching her closely, as though he was trying to figure her out.

Before she could reply, she heard a noise outside, to her right, then he leaned back, looked toward the

front of the house, and waved his hand, as though to tell someone to go away. In the next second, he pushed his

way past her and into the house.

“Would you mind!” Jocelyn said. “You can’t come barging in here like this and—”

“Don’t get your pin feathers ruffled,” he said as he shut the front door behind him.

“This isn’t my place and I don’t think you should be in here.”

“Yes it is.”

“Is what?”

“Your house.”

“Yes, technically, it is, but this part is rented to Sara Shaw. She—”

“She’s my cousin,” he said over his shoulder as he went to the kitchen.

Jocelyn was close behind him. “If you’re Sara’s cousin, does that mean you’re Ramsey’s brother?”

He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a beer. As he leaned back against the counter, he looked her up

and down in a way that Jocelyn had never liked. It was the way all men who knew they were good-looking

looked at women, as though they knew the women belonged to them—if they wanted them.

“What is it with you and ol’ Cousin Rams? You two have something going already?”

She took a step back from him. Her first attraction to him was fading. “Not that it’s any of your business,

but I’ve never met him. Sara told me he was her cousin, and if you’re also her cousin, then I assumed you were

related to Ramsey.”

“I am. But then, we’re all cousins. Sara, Rams, Charlie, Ken, and me. We have the same greatgrandparents.”

There was something about his attitude that she didn’t like. He was laughing at her, but she had no idea

what she was doing to amuse him. As far as she could tell, the entire town seemed to be related to one another.

“What about Ramsey’s sister? Is she a cousin too?”

He looked puzzled. “Of course she is. She’s…” He stopped because he realized she was teasing him. He’d

left some people off the list of cousins. He often found that people not from the South laughed when relatives

were mentioned. “Are you a—”

“So help me, if you ask me if I’m a Yankee, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” he asked, his eyebrows raised in interest.

“I’ll cut the heads off the roses. I don’t know. How do you punish a gardener?”

He gave her a look that almost made her blush. “That’s the most interesting question I’ve been asked all

day.”

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She was quickly developing a dislike of the man. Jocelyn looked at her watch. “I have to go. I’m meeting

someone.”

“Yeah, Rams. He’s over there working up a sweat to make a fairyland for you two.”

“That was nasty of you to ruin the surprise.”

“Waste of time, if you ask me.”

She gave him a look up and down that she hoped was full of contempt. “But then I suppose your idea of a

date is a six-pack and a bag of potato chips.”

“Corn chips,” he said. “I like corn chips. I especially like those blue ones. She shows up with blue corn

chips and a six of Samuel Adams and she just might get lucky.”

“I guess that’s supposed to be funny.”

“Just being honest.”

“You’re like so many men I’ve met—and never want to meet again.” She went to the back door to open it

and leave, but he blocked her way.

“You can’t leave yet. Rams said he’d ring the bell when he’s ready.”

“He sent
you
over here to detain me?”

“He’s not
that
dumb. He sent me to tell Sara to keep you busy, but he forgot to ask me if Sara was here.

Why don’t you sit down and be still so you don’t wrinkle your pretty new dress? I’m going to make myself a

sandwich. I’d offer you one, but Rams has enough food for half the town over there, so you better not eat now.”

She was standing at the end of Sara’s Formica-clad counter and considering what to do next. Stay here

and have this vain man laugh at her for things she didn’t understand, or leave and spoil Ramsey’s surprise? All in

all, she thought that she’d rather see Ramsey than stay here with this man.

Jocelyn turned just as Luke went to put his sandwich ingredients on the counter. Her arm hit his hand, and

the plastic mustard dispenser squirted on her. Bright yellow mustard went down the front of her white dress.

“You did that on purpose,” she said. “You meant to do that.”

“No I didn’t,” he said, and sounded truly contrite. “Honest, I didn’t.” Gone was the attitude and the half

smirk he’d worn since he’d pushed his way into the apartment. “I am sorry. Really.”

Turning, he grabbed a clean dishcloth off the rack over the sink and wet it. “Here,” he said, “let me help

you.”

She held her blouse out from her chest as she thought about how she could slip back into the house and

change without seeing Ramsey. But he said he was going to set up the picnic on the floor. If that meant the hall,

there was no way she could get past him—which meant she was going to meet him with her front covered in

mustard.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Jocelyn and Luke turned toward the back door and there stood a man she was sure was Ramsey. He was

an inch or two shorter than Luke and a bit heavier, but he had the same dark hair and green eyes, and almost the

same nose and chin. They were two truly gorgeous men.

Jocelyn looked from Ramsey to Luke and saw that he was hovering over the front of her with a wet cloth.

Instantly, she stepped out of his reach. “He threw mustard on me,” she said, her eyes on Ramsey.

Ramsey looked at Luke with a threat in his eyes.

Luke threw up his hands. “Accident. I swear. She’s yours.” With his hands still up, he backed out of the