Bj James - A Lady For Lincoln Cade

Ice clinked against an heirloom crystal glass as he took it from a wrought-iron table. Draining it, he poured another drink from a decanter he’d brought into the garden with him.

The boy. It was always that, never more. The child’s name was Cade. Yet for reasons he wouldn’t define, Lincoln Cade couldn’t bring himself to call Linsey’s son by his own name.

“Who is he, Linsey? Why is his hair dark like mine? Who gave him my name?”

Laughter from the street intruded. Adult amusement, but in it Lincoln heard the haunting laugh of a child.

But whose child?

Turning to the house, forsaking the garden and his search for peace he knew would elude him for a long time to come, Lincoln knew what he must do. He knew what he would do.

For Linsey, for himself.

For the boy.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the world of Silhouette Desire, where you can indulge yourself every month with romances that can only be described as passionate, powerful and provocative!

Fabulous BJ James brings you June’s MAN OF THE MONTH with A Lady for Lincoln Cade. In promising to take care of an ex-flame—and the widow of his estranged friend— Lincoln Cade discovers she has a child. Bestselling author Leanne Banks offers another title in her MILLION DOLLAR MEN miniseries with The Millionaire’s Secret Wish. When a former childhood sweetheart gets amnesia, a wealthy executive sees his chance to woo her back.

Desire is thrilled to present another exciting miniseries about the scandalous Fortune family with FORTUNES OF TEXAS: THE LOST HEIRS. Anne Marie Winston launches the series with A Most Desirable M.D., in which a doctor and nurse share a night of passion that leads to marriage! Dixie Browning offers a compelling story about a sophisticated businessman who falls in love with a plain, plump woman while stranded on a small island in More to Love. Cathleen Galitz’s Wyoming Cinderella features a young woman whose life is transformed when she becomes nanny to the children of her brooding, rich neighbor. And Kathie DeNosky offers her hero a surprise when he discovers a one-night stand leads to pregnancy and true love in His Baby Surprise.

Indulge yourself with all six Desire titles—and see details inside about our exciting new contest, “Silhouette Makes You a Star.”

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

For Gay, a friend, a lady.

first book for Silhouette Desire was published in February 1987. Her second Desire title garnered for BJ a second Maggie, the coveted award of Georgia Romance Writers. Through the years there have been other awards and nominations for awards, including, from Romantic Times Magazine, Reviewer’s Choice, Career Achievement, Best Desire and Best Series Romance of the Year. In that time, her books have appeared regularly on a number of bestseller lists, among them Waldenbooks and USA Today.

On a personal note, BJ and her physician husband have three sons and two grandsons. While her address reads Mooreboro, this is only the origin of a mail route passing through the countryside. A small village set in the foothills of western North Carolina is her home.

Foreword

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

In the coastal Lowcountry of South Carolina where the fresh waters of winding rivers flow into the sea, there is an Eden of unmatched wonders. In this mix of waters and along the shores by which they carve their paths, life is rich and varied. The land is one of uncommon contrasts with sandy, seaswept beaches, mysterious swamps, teeming marshes bounded by ancient maritime forests. And the multitude of creatures that abide in each.

In this realm of palms, and palmettos, estuaries and rivers, shaded by towering live oaks draped in ghostly Spanish moss, lies Belle Terre. Like an exquisite pearl set among emeralds and sapphires, with its name the small antebellum city describes its province. As it describes itself.

Belle Terre, beautiful land. A beautiful city.

A very proper, very elegant, beautiful city. A gift for the soul. An exquisite mélange for the senses. With ancient and grand structures in varying states of repair and disrepair set along tree-lined, cobbled streets. With narrow, gated gardens lush with such greenery as resurrection and cinnamon ferns. And all of it wrapped in the lingering scent of camellias, azaleas, jasmin, and magnolias.

Steeped in an aura of history, its culture and customs influenced by plantations that once abounded in the Lowcountry, as it clings to its past Belle Terre is a province of contradictions. Within its society one will find arrogance abiding with humility, cruelty with kindness, insolence with gentility, honor with depravity, and hatred with love.

As ever when the senses are whetted and emotions untamed, in Belle Terre there will be passion, romance, and scandal.

“Linc! Ho, Lincoln.”

Long after the call faded, the pounding of a horse’s hooves sheared through the stillness settling over the west pasture of Belle Reve. Sighing for the calm of a lost moment, weary after another of too many days routinely beginning with his veterinary practice and ending with duties at his family’s historic plantation, Lincoln Cade wearily abandoned his inspection of a sagging fence. From the shade of his battered Stetson he stared into the canted light of the sun falling over lush, sprawling fields common in South Carolina’s lowcountry.

Horse and rider were only a dark shape galloping over rich grass. Concerned that this was more than Jesse Lee’s usual attack on life, Lincoln stepped forward, catching the horse’s bridle as it halted. Instinctively calming the spirited animal, he demanded, “What’s wrong, Jesse? Is it Gus?”

“No, boy. Ain’t nothing wrong with your dad,” the cowboy explained. “Nothing a mood-sweetening elixir wouldn’t fix.”

Lincoln laughed. “How many times has he fired you today?”

“A dozen.” The laconic answer accompanied a wry grin.

“How many times have you threatened to vamoose, leaving South Carolina in the dust on your way back to Arizona?”

Jesse Lee’s mouth widened, rippling the mass of wrinkles scoring his weathered face. “’Bout the same, I reckon.”

“If it isn’t Gus, then why the hurry?”

Slapping a pocket, Jesse drew out a packet he handed to Lincoln. “The postmaster in Belle Terre sent this special ’cause it was marked urgent by a postmaster in Oregon. I figgered it could wait till you came to the house for supper. But Miz Corey said not. And when Miz Corey says git, any man in his right mind gits.

“When he hired the lady to keep house at Belle Reve, I doubt Gus counted on getting a ramrod for the plantation and him, too. Anyway, she said pronto, and I hightailed it down here.”

The wrangler’s look strayed to the packet. Lincoln didn’t notice. He was hardly aware of anything but the postmark.

“Seems odd, don’t it?”

As the horse nuzzled at his shoulder, Jesse’s comment penetrated Lincoln’s distraction. “Odd?” he asked. “Why?”