The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux

Author:Jude Deveraux
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Atria Books

Part Two

Sixteen

In the end, they decided to separate for a little exploring and to get together again for lunch. “That way, maybe we’ll have something to talk about besides the rotten part of our lives,” Leslie said.

Of course each woman agreed because she wanted to have time alone to buy birthday gifts for the other two. They decided to meet at one at The Wharf, and laughing, they challenged each other to eat some of the stranger types of seafood offered in Maine.

Leslie headed toward the used-book store that she’d seen down a tiny alleyway, and she hoped that Ellie hadn’t seen it. So what gift did you buy for an internationally famous person? she thought with a sigh.

She was still wondering as she entered the bookstore. As she closed the door behind her, she felt as though she’d entered another time and place. The walls were lined with packed bookcases, and books were everywhere else, on chairs, on the floor, on and under little tables. The shades had been pulled down to protect the books piled high in front of the windows. There were a few ceiling lights and a couple of wall lights that, unless Leslie’s eye was wrong, were antiques and quite valuable.

“May I help you?” came a voice that sounded ancient.

It took Leslie’s eyes a moment to adjust to the low light, and when they did, she saw a little old man, thin to the point of emaciation, but with thick white hair and such an erect carriage that Leslie knew that he’d once been a heart stopper. Something about him made her feel . . . well, pretty. And, compared to him, she was very young.

She gave him a radiant smile. “I’m looking for gifts for two women friends of mine. They both have birthdays tomorrow.”

He was shorter than Leslie, but she had an idea that no woman had ever felt shorter than he. “Could you tell me something about the women? What do they like?”

“I don’t really know them that—” She broke off. Was she going to say that she didn’t know Madison and Ellie very well? After what she’d heard in the last twenty-four hours? Not quite.

“Healing,” she said, the word popping out of her mouth. “One of them is interested in all things to do with medicine. And the other one . . .” Leslie hesitated. What was Ellie interested in? If it had been for someone other than Ellie, Leslie would have bought her a book on “meditations for women,” something calming, something to take the anger out of her. But Leslie could imagine Ellie scoffing at such a book.

Leslie gave the man a small smile. “You don’t have anything for someone who wants revenge, do you?”

The man smiled in return, as though her request weren’t in the least unusual. “Perhaps,” he said, then turned and walked through the stacks to the back of the store. When she reached him, he was standing in front of a small bookcase that Leslie was sure was Chippendale—real, not reproduction—and holding out a book to her.

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