Free Lavender Morning by Jude Deveraux Page A

done this time that you’re bringing me his breakfast?”
    Luke’s father had retired a year ago, and since then he’d nearly driven his wife insane with his puttering around
    the house.
    “Nothing. I talked him into going to a tractor show.”
    “Without you?”
    “In case he asks, I have the worst headache you’ve ever seen. That’s enough about me. Miss Edi’s girl
    comes today and I want you to promise that you’ll be nice to her.” While she talked, she was heating up the
    pancakes for her son and cleaning his kitchen as she moved about his house.
    Luke groaned. “What is it you want me to do this time? Take her out to dinner? Show her the sights? It’s
    too early for the water parks, so do I have to take her to some fife and drum concert?”
    “I want you to leave her alone. She belongs to Ramsey.”
    Luke’s eyes widened.
    “No, you don’t,” Helen said as she put the pancakes in front of him. “You’re not going to take this as a
    challenge. She’s already talked to Rams and she likes him.”
    “Didn’t waste any time, did he? But then I hear there was a bikini shot of her that he liked before he ever
    talked to her.”
    “Men are like that,” Helen said in dismissal.
    “Are we?” Luke’s mouth was full.
    “Do you understand me? Be nice and stay away from her. Keep to the gardening.”
    “What if I like her?” He told himself he was a grown man and it didn’t matter that his own mother was
    taking the side of his cousin, but he couldn’t help feeling betrayed.
    “You won’t. She was trained by Miss Edi, which means she likes men in tuxedos, not in…” She glared at
    his tattered jeans and dirty T-shirt. “Do we have everything clear between us?”
    “Sure,” Luke said. The last thing he wanted was female trouble. “Let Ramsey have her. Let them move into
    Edilean Manor and raise a dozen kids. What do I care?”
    But now, Luke kept watching Sara and the woman…What was her name? Jocelyn. An old-fashioned
    name that suited her. As he watched the two of them, he was beginning to change his opinion of her. She laughed
    easily and often. And whatever she was saying was interesting to Sara. In fact, Sara was doing most of the
    talking, which was unusual. Usually, Sara was the listener.
    Twice, Luke saw her…Jocelyn, look at the house with a mixture of love and disbelief, as though she were
    shocked that it could be hers. But that couldn’t be, could it? Surely Miss Edi had told her she was leaving the
    place to her.
    D:/…/Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.…
    34/176
    place to
    3/16/2010 her.
    Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html
    When the lawn mower blade was so sharp he could have sliced salami with it, he still stayed in the stables
    and watched them. He opened a bottle of water and drank it while leaning against the wall and looking out the
    little window. If he left, they’d see him, and he didn’t want that. Sara knew he was there, but she hadn’t called to
    him to come meet the new owner. That meant they were having some serious girl talk.
    Suddenly, Sara jumped up, grabbed the dress she was working on, and ran into her house. That she left her
    precious sewing box in the care of this stranger told Luke a lot. Sara liked her.
    The woman sat there for a while, then she picked up the dishes they’d used and the sewing box, and took
    them back to her own part of the house. As far as Luke knew, she hadn’t so much as walked through the house.
    He knew that upstairs was a bed that had been made up for her with clean sheets and new pillows. His mother
    had done that yesterday. After she left, Luke went up there and looked at the pretty little soaps his mother had
    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