“At the end of her life, Edi had no one,” David said softly. “Her brother was dead, but they’d never been close to begin with, so there was no one.”
“Why did she live in Boca Raton? Why didn’t she return to Edilean?”
“I’m not sure, but my guess would be that people here knew too much about her. She came back often and did a lot for the town—as I’m sure you know. But she preferred to live in Florida.”
Luke looked at his grandfather. “What happened in 1941?”
David leaned back in his chair and his face closed as though a door had been shut. “There are some things that don’t need to be talked about, and I don’t care how many times you ask me, I’m not going to tell that story.”
“But I think it has something to do with today. Miss Edi lied to Jocelyn, or rather concealed a lot from her. It’s the kind of thing that wouldn’t matter to me, but it’s tearing Joce apart. As far as I can tell, Joce had a rotten life. I don’t know much about it, but I think Miss Edi was the only good thing she had. But now the woman has played a bad joke on her by leaving her that old house and no money for its upkeep. Miss Edi could have used some of Alex McDowell’s trust money to create an endowment for an historic house, but she didn’t. And if Miss Edi worked hard to keep Joce from knowing about Edilean, why did she leave her the house? None of it makes sense.”
David took his time answering. “The Edi I knew had a reason for everything she did, and I think she meant for your Jocelyn to find out what that reason was.”
“Don’t start on me again. She’s not ‘my’ Jocelyn.”
David ignored his grandson’s angry tone. “Did you read Edi’s letters to Alex?”
“Letters?” Luke asked, sounding as though he’d never heard of such a thing.
“Yes, letters. Alex and Edi corresponded all during the war and afterward. Ramsey must have them.”
Luke thought about that for a moment. If there were letters between Edi and Alex, then Luke had no doubt that Ramsey had read them—and kept them a secret. No wonder Rams was pursuing Jocelyn with so much gusto. Picnic baskets, chocolate-covered strawberries, hassling Tess for advice…Suddenly, some things were making sense. Luke’s mother used to visit Alex McDowell often. Had she read the letters? Had she colluded with him in some plan to hook up Rams and Jocelyn?
Luke looked at his grandfather. “What about you?”
David looked up at the waitress to signal for the check. “What about me what?”
“Letters,” Luke said. “Did you and Miss Edi write each other?”
“For a while,” David said, his voice barely audible.
Luke stared at his grandfather as he signed the check, and when he stood up to go, Luke stayed seated and kept staring.
Reluctantly, David sat back down. “Okay, yes, we exchanged a few letters, but…”
Luke studied his grandfather’s face. “Nana Mary Alice doesn’t know about them, does she?”
“Oh, she knew all right, but she made me swear to burn them, and I did.”
Luke’s face fell. “You didn’t by chance burn some other letters, did you?”
“No. Your grandmother was forgiving of some things, but she got sick of being compared to Edi. She stood right beside me as I threw every one of those letters into the flames.”
Luke looked at his plate, and for a moment David was silent.
“However…,” David said.
“However, what?”
“The truth is that those letters from Edi weren’t very interesting. She just recounted where she was and what she was doing during the war. They were more perfunctory than enlightening. But the stories she sent to Alex…Well, they were a whole different kettle of fish.”
“You mean the letters Ramsey has?”
“No, not those. I’m talking about the stories she wrote while she was recovering from her burns. She told Alex the truth about what she did during the war and she wrote down the story about the man named David who she fell in love with.”
“Do you have those stories?” Luke asked, his eyes alight.
“Yes and no.” David paused. “You know what Alex was like at the end. It was only by accident that I saw the stories, and I think some of them may have been destroyed. I kept all that I could find.”