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  The Blessing

  Books by Jude Deveraux

  THE VELVET PROMISE

  HIGHLAND VELVET

  VELVET SONG

  VELVET ANGEL

  SWEETBRIAR

  COUNTERFEIT LADY

  LOST LADY

  RIVER LADY

  TWIN OF FIRE

  TWIN OF ICE

  THE TEMPTRESS

  THE RAIDER

  THE PRINCESS

  THE AWAKENING

  THE MAIDEN

  THE TAMING

  THE CONQUEST

  A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR

  WISHES

  MOUNTAIN LAUREL

  THE DUCHESS

  ETERNITY

  SWEET LIAR

  THE INVITATION

  REMEMBRANCE

  THE HEIRESS

  LEGEND

  AN ANGEL FOR EMILY

  THE BLESSING

  Published by Pocket Books

  Jude

  DEVERAUX

  The Blessing

  POCKET BOOKS

  NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY TOKYO SINGAPORE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  Visit us on the World Wide Web:

  http://www.SimonSays.com

  Copyright © 1998 by Deveraux, Inc.

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

  ISBN: 0-7434-1738-0

  POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

  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

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I OUGHT TO KILL YOU, YOU KNOW THAT? JUST OUTRIGHT murder you,” Jason Wilding said, looking at his brother from under straight black eyebrows that were topped with a lion’s mane of steel gray hair.

  “What else is new?” David asked, smiling at his older brother, giving that smile of such great charm that people trusted him with their lives. David Wilding, or Dr. David as he was known to the people of Abernathy, Kentucky, picked up his glass of beer and drank deeply, while Jason sipped at his single malt whiskey.

  “So what do you want?” Jason asked, arching one brow. It was a look that had made many a businessman’s knees quake.

  “Now what makes you think I want anything?”

  “Years of experience. The rest of this one-horse town may think you’re ready for sainthood, but I know you. You’re up to something and you want something from me.”

  “Maybe I just wanted to visit with my illustrious older brother and the only way I could get you to come home for Christmas is to tell you that Dad was about to die.”

  “Cheap trick,” Jason said with tight lips. He began to look in his suit pocket for a cigarette, then remembered that he gave them up over two years ago. But there was something about being in a bar in the town where he grew up that brought out the good ol’ boy in him.

  “It was the only thing I could think of,” David said in defense of what he had done. He’d cabled his rich, overworked brother in New York that their father had suffered a heart attack and probably had only days to live. Within hours Jason’s private jet had landed in an airfield fifty miles from Abernathy, and an hour later Jason was standing in their living room. When Jason had seen his father drinking beer and playing poker with his buddies, for a few minutes, David had feared for his life. But, as he well knew, Jason’s bark was worse than his bite.

  “I’m not staying,” Jason said, “so you can get that idea out of your head.”

  “And why not?” David asked, trying to sound innocent. It had always been a family joke that David could get away with anything while Jason got blamed for everything. It was their looks. David had blond hair and blue eyes and a pink-and-white complexion. Even at thirty-seven he looked like an angel. And when he had on his doctor’s coat, a stethoscope about his neck, every person who saw him breathed a sigh of relief, for any man who looked as divine as he did had to be able to save lives.

  On the other hand, Jason was as dark as David was fair, and as his father had often said to him, “Even if you didn’t do anything, you look like you did,” for Jason was born with a scowl.

  “Let me guess,” David said, “you’re booked for four weeks in Tahiti and you’ll be bedding three women at once.”

  Jason just took a sip of his whiskey and looked at his brother archly.

  “No, no, don’t tell me,” David said. “I really can guess this one. Maybe it’s Paris and you’re having an affair with a runway model. One of those tall, cool creatures with plastic breasts.”

  Jason looked at his watch. “I have to go, Leon is waiting.”

  David knew that Leon was his brother’s private pilot and, in cases like this trip, he doubled as his chauffeur. David also knew that Jason’s staff served as his family, since he never bothered returning home and he’d always been much too busy to create a family of his own.

  Jason gave his brother a look, then finished his whiskey and rose. “Look, you know how much I’d love to stay here and listen to you make fun of me, but I have—”

  “Let me say it,” David said heavily. “You have work to do.”

  “Right, I do, and I would imagine that just because it’s Christmas people don’t stop getting sick, even in charming little Abernathy.”

  “No, and they don’t stop needing help, even in Abernathy.”

  At that Jason sat back down. David asked for help only if he really needed it. “What is it? Cash?” Jason said. “Whatever you need, if I have it it’s yours.”

  “I only wish that were true,” David said, looking down at his beer.

  Jason signaled the waiter to bring another single malt, and David looked up at him in speculation. Jason wasn’t much of a drinker. He said it dulled his brain and he needed his wits about him if he was going to work. And, of course, work was Jason’s be-all, end-all of life.

  “I’m in love,” David said softly; then when his brother was silent, he looked up and saw one of Jason’s rare smiles.

  “And what else?” Jason asked. “She from the wrong side of the tracks? Are the biddies of this town up in arms because their precious Dr. David is no longer available?”

  “I wish you didn’t hate this town so much. It’s a great place, really.”

  “If you like small-minded bigots,” Jason said cheerfully.

  “Look, what happened to Mother—No, I’m not going to get into that. I like this town and I plan to stay here.”

  “With your new ladylove. So what’s the problem with this girl that you think you need me? What do I know about being in love?”

  “You know about dating. I see your name in all the society columns.”

  “Mmmm. I need to network at those charity functions . . . and it helps to have a woman on my arm,” Jason said without much feeling.

  “It’s ni