Heartwishes: An Edilean Novel,Used

Product Description In this spellbinding new novel from New York Times bestselling author Jude Deveraux, a young woman must hunt for a magical stone to protect the man she loves. Gemma Ranford wants the job cataloging the documents of one of Edileans oldest families, the Fraziers, so much that she is ready to do battle to get it. Fascinated with history, and desperately trying to finish her dissertation, shes hoping against all hope that the papers will yield new information to invigorate her research. About the Author Jude Deveraux is the author ofmore than forty New York Times bestsellers, including Moonlight in the Morning, The Scent of Jasmine, Scarlet Nights, Days of Gold, Lavender Morning, Return to Summerhouse, and Secrets. To date, there are more than sixty million copies of her books in print worldwide. To learn more, visit JudeDeveraux.com. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. 1 ALL GEMMA KNEW for sure was that she wanted the job so much she would have murdered to get it. Well, maybe not killed anyone, but certainly broken a few arms or legs. She stood beside Mrs. Frazier and stared at the storage room full of dirty old boxes stacked neatly on new wooden shelves, and knew shed never seen anything so beautiful in her life. Original sources screamed in her head. She was looking at containers full of documents that no one had touched in hundreds of years. Mrs. Frazier, tall and majesticlooking, was gazing down her nose at Gemma and obviously waiting for her to say something. But how could Gemma put what she was feeling into words? How could she describe her lifetime fascination with history? Could she tell of the adventure of discovery that these documents represented to her? Or the excitement of the hunt to find new information, new Perhaps it is all a bit overwhelming, Mrs. Frazier said as she flipped off the light switch, a sure sign that Gemma was to leave the precious boxes and their mysterious contents. Reluctantly, Gemma followed her into the cozy living room. Even the guesthouse that was to be used by whomever got the job was lovely. It had a large living room with a kitchen at one end, a big bedroom with a private bath, and the storage room theyd just seen. At the front of the house was an extraordinarily beautiful and spacious office with double French doors that opened out onto acres of lawn and flowers. Outside, just beyond a covered carport, was a threecar garage that was filled floor to ceiling with many more boxes full of uncataloged documents. Gemmas mind was reeling with the enormity of the task the job entailed. When her adviser for her doctorate in history emailed her that hed managed to get her an interview for a temporary job in the tiny town of Edilean, Virginia, Gemma had been pleased. But then hed explained that their university was the alma mater of a woman who wanted to hire someone to go through her familys papers and write a history. Gemma had scoffed at the idea. What did that mean? Greatgranny and Ellis Island? Too, too boring. Later that day shed stopped by his office to give him the courtesy of a personal reply. Gemma told him sorry, but now that her course work was done, she needed to work on her dissertation so she could finish her Ph.D. I think you should look at this. Her adviser handed her a letter printed on expensive, heavy vellum. It said that Mrs. Peregrine Frazier had purchased from her husbands familys estate in England several hundred boxes full of documents that dated back to the sixteenth century. She was offering a job to someone to catalog them and write a history from what was found. Gemma looked across the desk at her adviser. Sixteenth century and several hundred boxes werent exactly the normal genealogy. Who else has seen these papers? Rats, mice, her adviser said as he held up a fatly stuffed envelope. Its all in here. The papers have been in the attic of a house in England since the plac