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  When Ramsey looked at her, she could see that he was still burdened by what he saw as terrible news.

  “So tell me the whole story,” Joce said. “Why did your grandfather support a woman he wasn’t related to?”

  “I don’t know, and neither does my dad. All we know is that Miss Edi’s family was the most prestigious in town, but Alex McDowell’s family was the wealthiest. We know that something bad…awful happened in 1941, and Miss Edi helped my grandfather Alex, but we don’t know the details. For most of her life, Miss Edi worked—”

  “With burn patients all over the world,” Jocelyn said.

  “Right, and she supported her brother and paid for the upkeep of Edilean Manor. When she retired, she moved to Boca Raton.”

  “In a house near us.” Jocelyn had her knees drawn up, her arms around them, and she was listening to him intently. “Owned by your grandfather.”

  “Yes. Between supporting her brother and keeping up the Manor, plus all she gave to people in need along the way, Miss Edi had nothing. My grandfather bought that house, and she lived in it rent free.”

  “Why didn’t she go back to Edilean?” Joce asked.

  “That’s part of the Great Mystery,” Rams said. “Dad said that Bertrand wanted to go to Florida to live with her, but Miss Edi said he had to stay in Edilean and look after the house. He had to keep it intact for the future. But neither of them married, and they left no heirs.”

  “So he didn’t gamble the family fortune away?” Joce asked.

  “No,” Ramsey said. “My dad said that Bertrand liked that people thought he was a compulsive gambler who spent everything on the ponies. Bertrand said it was much better than being known to be just plain broke.”

  “So Miss Edi left me a white elephant.”

  “Pretty much, yes. But the good news is that the house is yours, free and clear, so you can sell it if you want. It would probably bring in a million or so.”

  “A million or so?” She sat still, hugging her knees to her chin, and looking at the water. “What about Luke? You said you pay his check. Weren’t you to be reimbursed when I inherited the money?”

  Ramsey shrugged. “He doesn’t earn much, so I pay it out of…”

  “Your own money,” Joce said flatly.

  “Look, don’t worry about Luke. He’s not poor by any means. He has…other income.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Telling you my cousin’s business is not something I’ll do. Let’s just say that Luke hasn’t had an easy life, but money isn’t his problem.”

  She could tell that Ramsey wasn’t going to say any more about that. “What I don’t understand is how Miss Edi lived as she did if she had no money of her own. We went to the opera. She attended charity meetings, and I know she contributed. We did all this together. How could she do that if she had no money?”

  “That was her job,” Ramsey said. “My grandfather set up a trust, and Miss Edi administered it. He knew his son, my father, would hate having to deal with all those meetings, so he left it to Miss Edi to do.”

  “From a house in Boca?” Joce said. “Does that sound odd to you?”

  “Yes and no. I think my grandfather trusted Miss Edi more than anyone else, and since she didn’t want to return to Edilean, where people still talked about the fact that she was an ‘old maid,’ it worked out well. And Dad said he thought she didn’t want to live with her brother.”

  “And the cold hurt her legs.”

  “I’m sure there were a thousand reasons for it all. I think my grandfather and Miss Edi worked it out so they were both happy with everything. My dad said she did a great job at administering the trust.”

  “She spent a lot of money on me,” Joce said softly.

  “Last night Dad told me that my grandfather and your grandparents were friends. I think that’s why he bought that house, so she could be near them.”

  Jocelyn gave a sigh. “Yet another lie. Or something that was hidden. Miss Edi never told me that my grandparents were friends of her friend.” She took a breath. “So many secrets.” She looked at him. “Does the whole town know that the Harcourt family was destitute?”

  “No.” Ramsey grimaced. “It was such a secret that until last night, even I didn’t know. My dad said he used to go to Bertrand twice a year, and they’d drink fifty-year-old brandy and laugh about the poverty of the Harcourt family. Jocelyn, you have to understand that I knew nothing about this. I believed the papers I saw and thought you were inheriting about three million dollars plus the house. Before you even came here, you asked me on the phone about the money, and I told you the truth as I knew it. I would never have—”

  She could hear the pleading in his voice, hear that he didn’t want her to think badly of him. She didn’t, but she thought she’d save him from humiliation by saying nothing. “Whatever did she do to make your grandfather take care of her and her brother for so many years?”

  “I don’t know. And neither does Dad. Last night he told me that when his father turned the Harcourt account over to him, he asked him that very question, but Gramps wouldn’t tell him. Dad said that over the years he asked a hundred times, but Gramps refused to confide in him. All Gramps would say was that Edi believed in him when no one else did, and if she hadn’t, his life would have been hell. He said he owed everything he had to Miss Edi.”

  “What does that mean?” Joce asked. “Did she advise him to buy U.S. Steel at ten cents a share? He bought it, the stock went up, and voilà! He’s rich. Maybe it was something like that.”

  “No, it couldn’t have been that simple. If it was something like that, Gramps could have set up a trust for her in the open. It would have become a town legend, and everyone would have agreed that Gramps owed her. But this was something that was done in secrecy. Whatever Miss Edi did for my grandfather, it was done without the town knowing about it.”

  “In this town?! Two men visited Tess on a Saturday night and the next morning everyone knew about it.”

  “Exactly. But something happened, something big, and because of that, after Miss Edi retired, my grandfather took care of her and her brother.”

  “I’m beginning to think that everything she told me was a lie.”

  “She didn’t lie when she said she loved you. She wrote Gramps that you were a gift from God, something for her old age. Jocelyn,” Ramsey said as he reached out and put his hand on her arm. “I’ll help you. I really will.”

  “You mean that you’ll give me charity like your grandfather did? Your family are the true owners of Edilean Manor.”

  “Then Luke would work for me?” Ramsey said, and there was so much glee in his voice that Jocelyn laughed.

  “What would he say if he knew you were paying him?”

  “Probably hit me in the face. He has the meanest left hook I’ve ever seen. I think my eyes were black half my childhood.”

  “And what wounds did he carry?”

  “None,” Ramsey said. “I turned the other cheek.”

  She laughed again, only this time it was genuine. She looked back at the water. “Okay, so I have to find a job. Hey! I know. Why don’t you fire Tess and let me work for you?”

  When Ramsey looked at her with eyes wide with horror, she grinned.

  “Why not? I’ll wear dresses. They’ll have skirts down to my knees, and there won’t be any cowboy boots.”

  “If you don’t quit saying these things I’m going to tell Tess on you.”

  Jocelyn put her hands up, as though to shield her face from blows. “Did I tell you what she said to me when I first met her?”

  “No,” he said, “but I heard what you said back to her. Something about honey catching more flies than a beautiful face?”

  “Good synopsis.” She began to pack up the basket, but Ramsey sat where he was.

  “I have something else to tell you.”

  Jocelyn sat back down on the quilt. “What else could you have to say to me? That I’m in debt? Please don’t tell me there’s s