Lavender Morning Read Free Page B

I’ve ever met.”
    Edi tried to remain aloof, but she couldn’t help hugging the girl back.
    After that, Jocelyn spent weekends at Edi’s house and most of the holidays. They were two lonely people
    who needed each other and were thrilled to have found one another. They made a life together, with outings on
    Saturdays, church on Sundays, and time to be quiet and sit in the garden.
    As for her father, for all that Edi had at first judged him to be uncaring, she found out that he loved his
    daughter as much as he’d loved her mother, and all he wanted was for Jocelyn to be happy. “I can’t give her
    what she woulda had if her mother had lived,” he told Edi, “but maybe you can. Joce can go to your house all
    she wants to, and if you need anything from me, you just let me know.” He glanced at his wife and twin
    stepdaughters waiting for him in the car. “They’re like me and we fit together, but Joce is…different.”
    Edi knew what it felt like to be different, and Jocelyn was as out of place in her home as Edi had been at
    times in her life.
    The years with Jocelyn had been the happiest of Edi’s life. It had been wonderful to teach a young mind,
    and to show her the world. When her family went to Disney World, Edi took Jocelyn to New York to the
    Metropolitan Opera. When her stepsisters were wearing short shorts to show off their long legs, Jocelyn was
    wearing Edi’s pearls with a twin set.
    The summer Joce turned sixteen, she and Miss Edi went to London, Paris, and Rome together. The
    traveling had been difficult on Miss Edi. Between her legs and her age, she didn’t have much energy. But Jocelyn
    had spent the days wandering about the cities and photographing them. In the evenings she shared her new
    stories with Miss Edi’s old ones.
    In London Edi had shown Joce where she’d met David—no last name given—the man she’d loved and
    lost. “There was only one man for me, and he was it,” she said as she looked at the big white marble building
    where they’d met.
    By that time, Jocelyn had heard the story a dozen times but she never tired of it. “One love.” “A love for all
    time.” “A forever love.” These were terms she’d heard many times. “Hold out for it,” Miss Edi said. “Wait for
    that kind of love,” she advised, and Jocelyn had always agreed. One true love.
    Besides the pleasure of the time they spent together, as she grew older, Jocelyn often aided Miss Edi with
    the charities she administered. Joce did research and sometimes even traveled to see them. Three times she
    discovered frauds and as a result, she developed friendships with a couple of men in the local police department.
    But what Miss Edi never told was that the money she gave away wasn’t hers. She carefully concealed the
    fact that the money came from Alexander McDowell of Edilean, Virginia. In all their years of friendship, neither
    his name nor the town’s was ever mentioned.
    When Jocelyn started going to a small college not too far away, Edi had been lost without her. At first,
    Jocelyn had been so busy with her weekend job and all she’d had to do to put herself through school, she
    couldn’t even call. They e-mailed and texted often—Miss Edi loved any new technology that came out—but it
    wasn’t the same.
    After six months of college, Miss Edi started paying Jocelyn’s tuition so she wouldn’t have to spend all her
    time at the school. This was done without the knowledge of her father or the “Steps,” as they called the two
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    time at
    3/16/2010 the school. This was done without the knowledge of her father
    Jude Deveraux - Lavender Morning.html or the “Steps,” as they called the two
    skinny, blonde twins. Edi didn’t think her father would object, but she didn’t want to risk it. And she especially
    didn’t want to risk that the stepdaughters would hit her up for money. Although people often spoke of how
    beautiful the girls were,