Lavender Morning by Jude Deveraux Page A

She’s sure I’m going to starve living alone. Or worse, that I’ll eat something that isn’t
    homegrown and organic. She raised those chickens, and the apples are from our trees.”
    Joce looked at the sandwich in doubt. “You knew this chicken?”
    Sara shrugged. “By the time I was three I learned not to name any living thing around our house. Except my
    sisters. I named them, but they still didn’t end up in a pot.”
    Joce nearly choked. “Don’t get me started! Whatever sister story you have, I can top it.”
    “Think so? Both my sisters graduated from Tulane with cum laude degrees. Both of them got married the
    week after they graduated—to doctors, of course. And both of them got pregnant the week after they married.
    And they were virgins on their wedding nights.”
    Joce took a drink, then gave Sara a smug look. “No competition. My sisters are Steps. They’re identical
    twins, beautiful, naturally blonde, and are five feet eleven inches tall. You know what they call me? Cindy.”
    “Cindy?” Sara’s eyes widened. “Not…”
    “Right. Short for Cinderella.”
    Sara didn’t want to concede the title just yet. “I have four utterly perfect nieces and nephews, two of each.
    They never, ever forget to say please and thank you.”
    “Ever hear of Bell and Ash?”
    “The models? Sure. Last week they were on the cover of—No!” Sara gasped. “You can’t be telling the
    truth. They’re your…?”
    “Stepsisters,” Jocelyn said.
    “You win. Or lose, I don’t know which. I think I’ll call my sisters and tell them I’m glad they’re mine.” She
    looked at Joce in speculation. “How do you stand it?”
    “I get by,” she said, shrugging as she looked at Sara. “I don’t think I would have made it if it weren’t for
    Miss Edi. She was the one who saved me.” She looked down at her sandwich. “Speaking of Miss Edi, she said
    you’d lived here all your life.”
    “In the town, not in this house.”
    “Sure,” Joce said cautiously, then chewed while she tried to think of a polite way to bring up what she
    wanted to talk about. “Do you know a man named Ramsey McDowell?”
    “Of course,” Sara said, but she didn’t look up.
    “What’s he like?”
    “Beautiful, brilliant, sophisticated. What exactly do you want to know about him?”
    “I take it then that he’s a heartbreaker.”
    Sara took a while to answer and when she did, there was caution in her voice. “He’s broken some hearts,
    yes.”
    “But he’s never had his broken?”
    Sara looked up from the dress. “I think I should tell you that Ramsey is my cousin, so there’s family loyalty
    there. I’d have to know you a lot better than I do now before I say much about him.”
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    “It’s just that he’s coming here tonight for dinner, and I’d like to know more about him than just the one
    conversation we had. He seems to be—”
    “Rams is coming here? Tonight? What did you do to rate that?” Sara looked impressed.
    “Nothing that I know of,” Joce said. “He’s handling all the paperwork for the house, so I guess—”
    “That’s work, and he does that at his office. What did you do to get him to come to your house?”
    “I…I don’t know, except that I knew the date the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.”
    “That would do it. Rams loves smart people, and he loves history.” Sara took a spool of thread from the
    box and rethreaded her needle. “That’s where the girls make their mistakes with my cousin.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “They think Rams is like all the other men and goes for low-cut dresses. He likes those but he likes brains
    more. Besides, Tess erased the dress theory forever. As for what else he likes, you can ask Tess about women
    or food or whatever. She knows him better than we do.”
    “Tess? Oh, yes. The other tenant. What does she have to do with