Lavender Morning Read online

  When Luke went to Sara’s apartment and knocked on the door, Tess was surprised. He must know that Sara wasn’t there.

  Tess stood under the trees and watched as Luke talked to the new owner, then practically pushed his way into the apartment. If he’d tried that with Tess, she would have pushed him back out. Interesting, she thought.

  Minutes later, Ramsey rang the little bell that hung on the side of the house. Its function had long ago been replaced by a doorbell, but the family seemed to like anything that was old-fashioned, so they used the bell whenever possible.

  When there was no response, Ramsey went into the big house, and Tess stepped farther back into the trees. She heard the back door to the house and figured Ramsey had gone to Sara’s apartment to get Jocelyn. Tess didn’t have to wait long. When Luke came storming out of the apartment, he looked to be genuinely furious. Everyone knew Luke had a short fuse, but she’d never seen him angry with Ramsey. True, they played at their little games and loved to pretend to be mad, but they weren’t. But Luke was truly angry as he got in his truck and sped away.

  Ramsey left Sara’s apartment with his arm around Jocelyn’s shoulders, and her pristine white dress was stained with what looked to be mustard. Tess wondered if Luke had done that. Good for him! she thought.

  When Ramsey and Jocelyn were inside the house, Tess went to her own apartment. About thirty minutes later, Luke showed up at her door for the second time that day. His handsome face was still angry. “He still in there?” he asked, as usual, not bothering to say who “he” was.

  “Far as I know,” Tess said as she motioned to the couch and he sat down while she got him a beer. “If you like her so much, why didn’t you ask her out?”

  “I’ve been told that she belongs to Ramsey.”

  “Why would anyone say that?” When Luke just sat there in sullen silence, she put up her hand. “So don’t tell me. I don’t want to know anyway. It’s my guess that that old woman everyone talks about—Edi—is behind—”

  “Miss Edi,” Luke said. “Show some respect for your elders.”

  After that, she hadn’t talked much, but Luke had.

  At first he talked about the garden, saying he wanted to put in an herb bed because that was in keeping with the house. “But I don’t know if she’ll like it or not.”

  As Luke talked, telling her everything about Jocelyn, from the way she dressed to her hair color, Tess had to grit her teeth. Was this yet another one of those competitions with his cousin, or was it more?

  Tess put a bowl of blue corn chips in front of him.

  Luke left after about a half hour, and Tess’s instinct told her that Ramsey would stop by her apartment after he left Jocelyn—whatever time that was.

  Now, Tess creamed the makeup off her face and checked her skin in the 4X mirror. Satisfied that she saw nothing worse than yesterday, she moisturized, then went to bed. What an idiot Ramsey was! How could she have men over at night without the town knowing? Or at least men other than the two who had been in her apartment. But then, they were part of “the family,” as it was known in town. Sometimes Tess felt like she worked for the Mafia.

  Good! Tess thought. Let them concentrate on someone other than her. Let them put their attention on this Jocelyn and not see what Tess was doing.

  As she fell asleep, she wondered if this Jocelyn woman knew that her date had gone to Tess’s apartment afterward. Did she know that Luke had been there that afternoon?

  She punched at the pillow in anger. Jocelyn inherited the house while Tess got…What? She still hadn’t figured that out yet.

  Just before she went to sleep she thought, cupcakes! Did you ever hear anything so lame in your life? Maybe she and Ramsey deserved each other.

  6

  TEN MINUTES AFTER she arrived at church, Jocelyn wanted to throw her clothes in her little car and leave town. Everyone was so very nice to her, but she could hear the unspoken questions as loud as though they were shouting them.

  The big one seemed to be What are you going to do? They meant do to their precious house. It was as though they feared a wrecking crew would show up on Monday morning.

  The little church was packed, with every seat filled. When she heard the pastor make a comment about the Lord using whatever He could to get people into church, Jocelyn tried to will her face not to blush, but she couldn’t control it. She well knew that so many people had shown up today just to see her.

  She took a seat in the middle, on the left side of the aisle, and when Sara sat down by her, she nearly hugged her. “Don’t worry, it will only get worse,” Sara said when the sixth couple walked down the aisle and stared at Jocelyn.

  “Don’t make me laugh.” Joce tried to see if she recognized anyone. The woman from the grocery waved to Sara.

  “Your mother, right?”

  “Very good. I told her that if she sat down by you and asked you what you thought of organic produce I’d buy some insecticide and spray something with it.”

  “Your cruelty amazes me.” When Jocelyn saw another woman she recognized, she leaned closer to Sara. “I saw her on the porch with the broom.”

  “She’s Luke’s mother, and she fixed your bedroom for you.”

  “I thought Ramsey did it,” Joce said. “I even thanked him for it.”

  “He didn’t take credit, did he?” Sara asked sharply.

  “No, he was honest. He said he thought the ladies from church did it. I’ll have to thank her.”

  “And Luke. He carried the bed and mattresses upstairs, and he helped arrange everything.”

  Jocelyn wasn’t sure how she felt knowing that Luke had been the one to prepare her bed for her. “I can’t tell if Luke likes me or hates me—or if he’s just using me to play some game with Ramsey.”

  “Probably all of them,” Sara said as she nodded toward people filing into the church. “I know he’s worried that you’ll not care about the house. Your house means a lot to the town. People kind of think of it as their own, and they’re worried what you’ll do with it.”

  “Sell it for bricks, you mean.”

  “You do know that you can’t really do that, don’t you? Even if you sell it, you have to offer it first to the National Register of Historic Places.”

  Jocelyn wanted to make a sarcastic remark to that, but she didn’t. None of these people knew her, but she reassured herself that Miss Edi had known her well, and that’s why she’d left the house to Jocelyn. She decided to change the subject. “Is Tess here?”

  “Tess in church?” Sara gave a little laugh. “The roof would probably fly off the building.”

  “I don’t know if I want to meet her or not.”

  “She can be…acerbic, I think that might be the word.”

  “A pure bitch?” Jocelyn said, then lowered her voice. “I think I may have just talked my way out of heaven.”

  “You were talking about hunting dogs, weren’t you?” Sara asked, her eyes wide in innocence, making Joce smile. The music was starting and she picked up her hymnal.

  Ramsey slid into the pew beside Jocelyn. “Sorry I was almost late. What page?”

  Jocelyn showed him and expected him to get his own hymnal, but he took one side of hers and shared. His voice was nice and from the way he sang, he knew the words well.

  “Get your work done?” she whispered when they sat back down.

  “Most of it.”

  “Tess help you?” she asked, as though it were an unimportant question.

  “Not with the work. I talked to her about you.”

  With that disarming statement, he turned his attention to the pastor.

  After the service, Jocelyn was separated from Sara and Ramsey, and pulled into a sea of people who all had something to say to her.

  She received many invitations to dinners and barbecues, and to join clubs, and to just visit. She was caught on the church steps by three women from Colonial Williamsburg who were talking to her about joining some committees for historic preservation when Sara whisper