The Summerhouse Read online

  Critical acclaim for the

  marvelous romances of

  JUDE DEVERAUX

  THE SUMMERHOUSE

  “Deveraux uses the time-travel motif that was so popular in A Knight in Shining Armor, successfully updating it with a female buddy twist that will make fans smile.”

  —Booklist

  “Entertaining summer reading.”

  —The Port St. Lucie News (FL)

  “[A] wonderful, heartwarming tale of friendship and love.”

  —America Online Romance Fiction Forum

  “A wonderfully wistful contemporary tale. . . . With New York Times bestselling author Jude Deveraux, one thing that’s guaranteed is a happy ending.”

  —Barnesandnoble.com

  “Thought-provoking, entertaining, and downright delightful.”

  —Amazon.com

  TEMPTATION

  “Deveraux[’s] lively pace and happy endings . . . will keep readers turning pages.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “An exciting historical romance that centers on the early twentieth century women’s rights movement. . . . Filled with excitement, action, and insight . . . .A nonstop thriller.”

  —Harriet Klausner, Barnesandnoble.com

  “[A] satisfying story.”

  —Booklist

  HIGH TIDE

  A Romantic Times Top Pick

  “High Tide is packed full of warmth, humor, sensual tension, and exciting adventure. What more could you ask of a book?”

  —Romantic Times

  “Fast-paced, suspenseful . . . . [A] sassy love story.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Exciting. . . . Fans of romantic suspense will gain much pleasure.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “[A] fast-paced escapade . . . mysterious and sultry.”

  —BookPage

  “Jude Deveraux not only keeps you guessing but mixes crime and human morality with humor in the most unexpected moments. . . . Real-life characters, tension-building suspense, intense passion, and [a] dynamic climax make this a fantastic read.”

  —Rendezvous

  THE BLESSING

  “Plenty of romance, fun, and adventure . . . fans won’t be disappointed.”

  —San Antonio Express-News

  “[A] fun and entertaining love story . . . a wonderful read. . . . A must for Deveraux fans.”

  —The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

  “The Blessing is another bestseller by one of the all-time greats.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “A heartwarming story.”

  —Kerrville Daily Times (TX)

  AN ANGEL FOR EMILY

  “All sorts of clever turns and surprises. Definitely a keeper. . . . Wow!”

  —The Philadelphia Inquirer

  LEGEND

  “First-rate reading. . . . Only Jude Deveraux could mix romance with tongue-in-cheek humor and have it all come out so perfectly right.”

  —Rendezvous

  THE HEIRESS

  “Deveraux’s novels are always eagerly awaited by her fans, and The Heiress lives up to her usual standards.”

  —The Pilot (Southern Pines, NC)

  Thank you for purchasing this Pocket Books eBook.

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  Contents

  Part One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Part Two

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Part Three

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Epilogue

  Chapter Thirty-two

  The Mulberry Tree excerpt

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  I’d like to thank Dr. Donna Twist for her expert

  help with writing about the treatment of an injury

  like Roger’s. We walked and talked and had many

  laughs together. Thank you.

  Part One

  One

  Leslie Headrick looked out her kitchen window at the old summerhouse in the back. Now, in early fall, the vines and twisted stems of the old roses nearly covered the building, but in the winter you could see the glassed-in porch well. You could see the peeling paint and the cracked glass in the little round window above the front door. One of the side doors was hanging on one hinge, and Alan said it was a danger to anyone who walked past the place. In fact, Alan said that the whole structure was a danger and should be torn down.

  At that thought, Leslie turned away from the window and looked back at her beautiful, perfect kitchen. Just last year Alan had gutted her old kitchen and put in this one. “It’s the best that money can buy,” he’d said about the maple cabinets and the solid-surface countertops. And Leslie was sure that it was the best, but she missed her ratty old Welsh dresser and the little breakfast nook in the corner. “That table and those chairs look like something kids made in a shop class,” Alan had said, and Leslie had agreed—but their perspective of what was beautiful differed.

  As always, Leslie had given in to her husband and let him put in this showplace of a kitchen, and now she felt that she was ruining a piece of art when she baked cookies and messed up the perfect surfaces that scratched so easily.

  She poured herself another cup of tea from the pot, strong, black English tea, loose tea, no wimpy tea bags for her, then turned back to again look out at the summerhouse. This was a day for reflecting because in three more days she was going to be forty years old—and she was going to celebrate her birthday with two women she hadn’t seen or heard from in nineteen years.

  Behind her, in the hallway, her two suitcases were packed and waiting. She was taking a lot of clothing because she didn’t know what the other two women were going to be wearing, and Ellie’s letter had been vague. “For a famous writer, she doesn’t say much,” Alan had said in an unpleasant tone of voice. He had been quite annoyed to find out that his wife was friends with a best-selling author.

  “But I didn’t know that Ellie was Alexandria Farrell,” Leslie had said, looking at the letter in wonder. “The last time I saw Ellie she wanted to be an artist. She was—”

  But Alan wasn’t listening. “You could have asked her to speak at the Masons,” he was saying. “Just last year, one of my clients said that his wife was a devotee of Jordan Neale.” Everyone in America knew that Jordan Neale was the lead character that Ellie, under the pen name of Alexandria Farrell, had created. Jordan Neale was someone women wanted to imitate and men wanted to . . . Well, the series of romantic mysteries had done very well. Leslie had read all of them, having no idea that the writer was the cute young woman she’d met so long ago.

  So now, in the quiet of the ear