“Okay,” David said, “that’s getting up there, but I have heard a few worse.”
“When he was sixteen, my mother arranged for her beloved son to go to a dance with a very nice young girl. He was to pick her up at six P.M. At six-thirty Bertrand was sitting in the living room and my father asked him why he hadn’t gone on his date. My brother said, ‘Because she hasn’t come to get me yet.’”
David laughed. “All this is a lie, isn’t it?”
“Not a word.”
“But how did he survive? What does he do with himself? How’d he get through school?”
“My brother is a brilliant young man. In school he’d get someone to tell him what a book was about, and five minutes later he could discuss it. Debate it. He loves to sit and talk.” Edi wrung out a piece of cloth. “And gossip. He knows everyone in town, and they all tell him their secrets.”
“I guess he didn’t go to war.”
“Four-F. Flat feet.” When Edi gently pushed at another piece of cloth, David gave a little groan of pain. “Want to hear more?”
“Yes,” he said through clenched teeth. “Got any about Austin? Something mean and juicy?”
“No, just Bertrand stories. Want to hear why he didn’t go to his own wedding?”
David opened his eyes wide and looked at her. “Tell me.”
“My mother arranged everything. Bertrand saw the girl, said she was suitable, and that was enough for both my mother and the girl.”
“Marrying money and an old name, right?”
“I already told you there was no money. But, yes, there was the name,” Edi said. “My mother was thrilled and spent months planning the most elaborate wedding the town had ever seen. My father had to mortgage our old house. The evening before the wedding, my father went into his son’s room to have a talk with him about the wedding night.”
“The wedding night,” David whispered. “I like this story the best of any you’ve told. Maybe of any I’ve ever heard in my whole life.”
“No one knows exactly what was said by my father, but everyone heard Bertrand shout for the one and only time in his life. He yelled, ‘I have to do what?’”
David started laughing. “Now you have me. That is the worst story I’ve ever heard. What happened?”
“Bertrand stayed home the next day and nothing anyone said or did could get him to move.”
“And his bride?”
“She showed up for the wedding that never happened. Poor dear. Her family was so humiliated, six months later they moved to Atlanta.”
“What did your brother say to explain?”
“Nothing. To my knowledge he’s never mentioned that day. The work other people do has never concerned him.”
“And your mother?”
“After that, she stopped trying to manage her son’s life, and my father said that that was almost worth the expense of the wedding.”
David was really laughing now, and Edi had finished with the bandages. She could tell by his eyes that he was at last comfortable enough to sleep. She pulled a quilt over him, then went to her own bed.
When he whispered, “Good night,” she smiled and went back to sleep.
20
JOCELYN WAS LAUGHING when Luke finished reading. “I’ve heard so much about Bertrand that I wish I’d met him.”
“He would have loved you.”
“Really?” she asked, feeling flattered.
“You leave your door open and people walk in and out all day. You feed anybody who stops by, and you always have time to listen to anyone. Yeah, I think you and Bertrand would have made great housemates.”
“I’m not like that,” Jocelyn said. “I’m…”
“You’re what? More like Miss Edi? Like the way that nurse described her, as cold and heartless?”
“I ought to send that woman a copy of this story and see if she still thinks Edi is without a heart.” For a moment Joce was quiet as she sat up and looked at the water, hugging her knees to her chest. “To think that Miss Edi lost him. There she was in the war, surrounded by men who were making fools of themselves over her, but she saved herself for True Love, but when she found it…”
“He was killed,” Luke said softly. “And later Miss Edi was injured severely. I wonder if that accident is why she didn’t marry and have children.”
“You mean you think she couldn’t have children?”
“I don’t know. How bad were her burns?”
“Toward the end, I helped her dress, and the scars were from her knees down. I don’t think the fire went higher. She told me it was very cold that day, so everyone was bundled up, and two soldiers threw themselves on her with their heavy coats on. If they hadn’t done that, the fire would have spread, because she had gasoline all over her.”
“Threw themselves on her,” Luke said, shaking his head. “And David was dead by then.”
“Yes. She said that she called out for him in the hospital. They kept moving her from one hospital to another while they waited for her to die.”
“They didn’t expect her to live?”
“No,” Joce said. “The gasoline and the fire and even the wool of the men’s burned coats all caused her to develop a serious infection. She ran a high fever for weeks. I think General Austin stepped in and had her sent back to the States, even though she wasn’t working for him then.”
“Did she quit him? Do you think she told him she couldn’t take his bad temper anymore?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask because she never even hinted that he was a difficult man. She just said that when she was burned she was still in England, but she was no longer working for General Austin. I don’t know what she was doing. I assume she was still in the military or she would have gone home to Edilean.”
“Would she?” Luke asked.
“Why do you say that?”
“Why would she go home to Edilean? What was waiting for her? An old house that costs a lot to keep in repair and a brother who set standards for laziness?”
“And your very happy grandfather,” Joce said.
“Yes, my happy grandfather, who had broken up with Edi the day after Pearl Harbor was hit.”
“Did your grandfather ever tell you why they broke off their engagement?”
“Yes. When we went to Richmond he told me that it was because they realized that there was nothing to find out about each other,” Luke said. “Gramps said that when he and Edi saw that they were excited to go off to war, they knew that their perfect lives weren’t so perfect after all. Miss Edi told Gramps that they should have been devastated that the future they’d always looked forward to was going to be changed, but they weren’t. Gramps said she gave back his ring, they shook hands, and laughed together, both of them quite happy for the engagement to be over.”
“But they never told anyone.”
“The whole town would have been sad. War was enough, but it was far away. Edi and David had been together all their lives.”
Joce turned to look at him, stretched out on the blanket they’d brought, his head on his hands. “I’m glad I haven’t known you all my life.”
He moved as though he were going to take her hand in his, but he didn’t. “Jocelyn, I think…,” he began, but cut himself off, then lay back on the blanket. “You still think I’m like your father?”
“Why has that statement bothered you so much?”
“Who wants to be like his girl’s father?”
The old-fashioned term “his girl” made a little shiver run through her body. “The more I hear of Miss Edi’s story, the more I think she and I are alike. And like my mother. We seem to like only men who…” She didn’t know what else to say.
“Who aren’t lawyers?” Luke said. “Your mother fell for a handyman and Miss Edi loved a car mechanic, and now you like the gardener.”
She could feel the anger under his voice. “Luke, I didn’t mean it like that.”
“You ready to leave?” he said as he got up.
She st
ood up. “Are you angry at me?”
“For telling me that you…what? That you like me in spite of who and what I am? What if I’d become a doctor like my grandfather? Would you like me better then?”
“No, but I could afford some furniture for that big house,” she said, smiling.
Luke didn’t smile. “So this is about money? As soon as Rams gets back in town are you planning to run to him because he’s rich?”
“I was just making a joke,” Joce said. “I would never marry a man just for money.”
“Are you sure? Maybe you want my cousin for the life you think he can give you. Vacations to the Orient, nannies for the kids, silver for the table. Is that what’s important to you?”
When he started to move away, she put her hand on his arm. “None of that is important to me,” she said. “If it were up to me I’d live in a two-bedroom ranch and write while the kids take naps. But Miss Edi left me that house, so I—”
“Miss Edi!” Luke said. “Is she all you think about? Her life, not yours?”
“Of course not! I think about my own life, but Miss Edi said Ramsey was perfect for me.” As soon as she said it, Jocelyn put her hand over her mouth.
“She said what?”
Joce picked up her pack and began to put things inside it.
Luke caught her arm and turned her to face him. “I want to know what you’re talking about. When did she tell you about Ramsey?”
“In the letter she left me with her will. You didn’t know her, but she was great at judging couples who’d stay together or not, and she said that there was a man in Edilean who was perfect for me.”
Luke dropped her arm and stepped back. “And that was my cousin Ramsey?”
“Yes,” she said. “But she didn’t know you. She—”
“She sure as hell didn’t know Ramsey either,” Luke nearly shouted. “All she knew about him is his money and his ancestry. Did you ever think that you were part of the bargain between Alexander McDowell and Miss Edi? Maybe she tried to thank Uncle Alex by giving his descendant the old manor that he’d coveted all his life.”
“That’s a ridiculous idea.”
“You’ve lived here a while now. Do you really think it’s not possible?”
“I don’t know.” Joce put her hands over her ears. “I don’t want to hear any more of this.” When he said nothing else, she took her hands down and looked at him. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something, but she could think of nothing to reply to his accusations.
“Are you going to live your entire life for Miss Edi?” Luke asked. “You live in her house, and you’ve given your life over to writing about her, reading about her. She seems to be all you think about. Are you going to marry some man you don’t love because she told you that you should?”
“No,” Joce said. “You’re twisting this all around. Besides, no one has asked me to marry him.”
“But he’s going to,” Luke said, “and you know it. You ready to leave?”
“Yes,” she said, but she didn’t want to go. She wanted to stay and argue this thing out with Luke. It had been such a wonderful day, with more of the love story revealed, but it had all ended in a fight, and she wasn’t even sure how it had begun.
She started to say that she didn’t want to leave, but there was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder and the next second they were hit with a downpour of rain. Instinctively, Jocelyn looked for shelter, but Luke grabbed their packs and pulled out their plastic ponchos. He helped Joce into hers with one hand while pulling his over his own head.
“We need to get out of here,” he said over the rain. “Can you walk?”
“Sure.”
“Stay close to me.”
His long legs set a pace that was difficult for her to keep up with, but she managed it. When they reached the truck, he threw open the door, and she got in, then he quickly raced around to the other side.
“Will you listen to me?” she asked as he started the engine. “I’m not marrying anyone. I’m sorry I talk about Miss Edi so much and I wish I hadn’t told you what she wrote to me.”
He didn’t look at her, but he gave a quick nod, then drove out of the parking lot, and minutes later he pulled into the driveway at Edilean Manor.
“How long are you going to stay angry at me?” she asked, feeling close to tears.
Suddenly, Luke reached across the seat, put his hand behind her head, and kissed her hard and long, and with more passion than Jocelyn had ever felt before.
When he released her, her head fell back against the window and her eyes stayed shut.
“Forget about Ramsey,” Luke said. “He’s too much like you and you’d come to hate each other.”
When she felt him reach across her, she opened her eyes, ready to kiss him again, but he opened the truck door. “Go inside and take a hot bath. I have to go out of town for a few days, but when I get back we’ll get the next part of the story from Gramps.”
“Okay,” she said as she got out of the truck. She closed the door behind her, then went into the house.
21
THE NEXT MORNING was Friday, and Jocelyn was sitting in her kitchen finishing off a pot of tea when Tess walked in and let out an exclamation.
“You scared me,” Tess said as she went to the refrigerator. “What are you doing here?”
“Last I heard, I live here.”
“Oh, my, we are surly this morning. You and Luke have a fight?”
“No, of course not,” Joce said, but her head was aching from a sleepless night. Luke’s words, his anger, even his unexplained trip out of town were all bothering her.
“Ramsey gets back today,” Tess said. “His plane lands in Richmond at ten this morning, so I figure he’ll show up here for lunch. Last night he called me and asked all about you and Luke.”
“Why couldn’t he have called me?” Joce asked. “If he wanted to know about me he should have asked me.”
“You’re in a bad mood this morning. So what did you and Luke fight about?”
“Ramsey, probably,” Sara said from the doorway. “Luke and Ramsey have bickered with each other since they were born. Now they have Joce to fight over.”
“I’m not a—” Jocelyn had said the words so many times that she couldn’t get them out again.
Sara went to the refrigerator and got a carton of eggs from her family’s farm. “I’m going to scramble some eggs. Anyone want some?”
“Yeah, sure,” Tess said. “You better make extra because Jim will be here any minute. You know how he eats.”
Jocelyn sat in the middle of her own kitchen, watching the two other women moving about, and she remembered what Luke had said about her house always being open. So what was wrong with that? she wondered. Just because his house was as closed as a prison didn’t mean hers had to be.
“Why are you looking so gloomy?” Sara asked. “And where is Luke?”
“Why is it that since the first moment I set foot in this town that I’ve been connected with either Ramsey or Luke? Why can’t I just be myself?”
Tess and Sara exchanged looks, as though some understanding had passed between them.
“Why don’t you go into town with me today and see my new shop?” Sara asked. “You’ve been so busy with your book that you haven’t even seen it.”
“You’ve been pretty busy yourself,” Jocelyn said. “What with a man you love, and a new business, and everything wonderful that’s happening to you, you must be very happy.”
“Come and spend some time with Greg and me today,” Sara urged. “You really haven’t got to know him, and he’s a great guy.”
“That’s not Joce’s fault,” Tess said. “You two spend all your time in bed or at the new store. Neither of you has time for anything or anyone else.”
“Your jealousy is showing,” Sara said, barely looking at Tess.
“Ha!” Tess said. “I’m not jealous of anyone. Just because you two—”
“Girls!” came a voice from the door
way as Jim walked in, his arms full of grocery bags.
It was too much for Jocelyn: too much company, too much of everything. She set her cup down and went upstairs to her bedroom. At least the top floor of the house seemed to be off limits to people who wandered in and out.
She sat down on the edge of her bed and picked up the double frame, Miss Edi’s David on one side, a young, beautiful Edilean Harcourt on the other. She envied her for knowing the man she wanted.
When a soft knock sounded on her open door, she looked up to see Sara. “Hi. Mind if I come in?”
“No,” Joce said. “I was just…” She couldn’t think of anything to explain what she was doing.
“Would you like someone to talk to?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know,” Joce said. “It’s just…”
“Men,” Sara said. “That’s what it always is and always will be. Men.”
“You met a man, fell madly in love with him instantly, so what do you know about men problems?”
“More than I can tell, and in spite of what Tess says, there’s more between Greg and me than just sex and business.”
“I’d settle for that.”
Sara leaned back on her elbows on the bed. “So tell me what my rotten cousins have done to you and I’ll tell you the answers. If there’s one thing I know it’s my cousins.”
“Didn’t you tell me that Luke was so much older than you that you hardly knew him at all?”
“That’s what I tell strangers,” Sara said. “But I hope that by now we’re friends. That day at Viv’s house proved that.”
Jocelyn groaned. “Don’t remind me. Bell showing up wearing next to nothing, you and me running through the kitchen like escaping thieves, and Luke’s…”
“Yeah,” Sara said. “Luke’s you-know-what. I hope he told you that that’s over. He’s been working with Ken at MAW to get his marriage annulled.”
“He told me,” Joce said.
“So soon he won’t be married. Legally, he’ll never have been married, so what’s the problem?”
Jocelyn put her hand to her head. “Me! I am the problem. As far as I can tell, I have a choice between two fabulous men, but I’m not sure if either of them wants me or if it’s just some male one-upmanship between them.”
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