Kathleen Creighton
Eve’s Wedding Knight
The fourth book in the Sisters Waskowitz series, 1999
Dear Reader,
What is there to say about a month with a new Nora Roberts title except “Hurry up and get to the store!” Enchanted is a mysterious, romantic and utterly irresistible follow-up to THE DONOVAN LEGACY trilogy, which appeared several years ago and is currently being reissued. It’s the kind of story only Nora can tell-and boy, will you be glad she did!
The rest of our month is pretty special, too, so pick up a few more books to keep you warm. Try The Admiral’s Bride, by Suzanne Brockmann, the latest TALL, DARK amp; DANGEROUS title. These navy SEAL heroes are fast staking claim to readers’ hearts all over the world. Read about the last of THE SISTERS WASKOWTTZ in Kathleen Creighton’s Eve’s Wedding Knight You’ll love it-and you’ll join me in hoping we revisit these fascinating women-and their irresistible heroes-someday. Rio Grande Wedding is the latest from multiaward-winning Ruth Wind, a part of her MEN OF THE LAND miniseries, featuring the kind of Southwestern men no self-respecting heroine can resist. Take a look at Vickie Taylor’s Virgin Without a Memory, a book you’ll remember for a long time. And finally, welcome Harlequin Historical author Mary McBride to the contemporary romance lineup. Just One Look will demand more than just one look from you, and it will have you counting the days until she sets another story in the present day.
And, of course, mark your calendar and come back next month, when Silhouette Intimate Moments will once again bring you six of the most excitingly romantic novels you’ll ever find.
Enjoy!
Leslie J. Wainger
Executive Senior Editor
For Ildy,
who is in some ways Eve
and some ways not,
but all ways,
loved.
Prologue
Jake Redfield stood in the early morning fog and watched the uniformed sheriff’s deputy stride toward him. Behind him on the banks of the river, other men, some wearing diving gear, were gathered around the shrouded body of a man.
“Fingerprints will have to confirm it,” the deputy said as he drew near. “But it’s Robey, all right. Everything matches.”
“Did he have anything on him?” Redfield asked. Like a computer disk, maybe?
The deputy shook his head. “Wallet, several different IDs, a little cash, not much. Sorry…”
Redfield turned without a word and walked back to his car.
Chapter 1
It was true that Mirabella Waskowitz Starr’s sister Eve had always been a maverick, and never much of one to stand on ceremony. So naturally it had come as a big surprise to everyone when she decided to get married, for the first time at the ripe age of forty-three, in a traditional church wedding with white satin and all the trimmings.
It was equally natural that Eve herself could see nothing contradictory in this.
“It’s tradition,” she told Mirabella in a superior tone. Mirabella had just finished buttoning the last of the long row of tiny satin-covered buttons that ran down the back of her sister’s bridal gown from nape to coccyx, and was now gazing with exasperation at her reflection in the mirror. “I’ve never had anything against tradition. Traditions are what hold us together, as a family or as a society.” Offsetting the oratorical tone, her lips turned up at the corners in a maddeningly demure smile as she set the pearl pillbox with veil attached at a more jaunty angle atop her short, straw-colored hair. “And I get to pick which traditions I choose to honor.”
Mirabella replied with a snort, which caused Eve’s eyes to widen as they met hers in the mirror. “Hey-why not? Some traditions are just plain silly. And some are downright insulting. That garter thing? There’s just no way in hell I’m doing that. Like I’m going to let Sonny peel it off me in front of everybody while the band plays bumps and grinds, and then hurl it into a pack of rabid male animals like some damn trophy? Tell me you don’t think that’s a bunch of sexist-”
She turned from the mirror with a swish of her white satin skirts to ask, breathless as a teenager dressing for a dance, “How do I look?” But the sparkle in her eyes and the color in her cheeks said plainly enough that there wasn’t anything Mirabella could tell her she didn’t already know.
“Gorgeous,” Mirabella dutifully supplied anyway. Not grudgingly. Not really.
Of course she thought her sister was beautiful-breathtakingly so. How could she not? Both her sisters-Evie, the oldest, and their baby sister, Summer, who’d just gotten married herself this past summer in a private civil ceremony, were drop-dead gorgeous in the classic tall, tan and blond California tradition. And at five feet one on a good day, Mirabella had had forty-plus years to get used to being the little round 0 between their two willowy letter l’s. On a good day. Which this, in her sixth month of pregnancy, definitely wasn’t. In fact, in the loose-fitting floor-length royal blue gown Eve had chosen for her to wear as co-matron of honor, her greatest fear was that someone would mistake her for a mailbox.
It wasn’t the dress or the pregnancy or her lack of stature that was making Mirabella grumpy and out of sorts on what should have been a joyous occasion. Those things had stopped having the ability to influence her happiness and well-being the day she’d fallen in love with Jimmy Joe Starr, the most wonderful man who’d ever been born, and who, miracle of miracles, loved and adored her exactly as she was. She wished she felt certain her sister was going to be as lucky in her choice of mates. Not that she had anything against her soon-to-be brother-in-law. Nothing she could put a finger on anyway. Just a feeling.
Mirabella would admit to herself-and to no one else-that maybe she wasn’t being entirely fair. For one thing, the man couldn’t help but suffer by comparison to Riley Grogan, the wealthy and prominent-not to mention gorgeous-Charleston attorney Summer had stunned everyone by marrying barely two months ago, in August.
Mirabella hadn’t quite forgiven Summer for going to Riley for help during that difficult and scary time, and for being afraid to reveal, even to the closest members of her family, what had been going on in her life. Finding out only afterward just what dire financial straits Summer’s no-good compulsive gambler ex-husband, Hal Robey, had left her in when he’d deserted her and their two children had been bad enough. But then to discover how she and the kids had been harassed and threatened-even had their mobile home burned-by mob thugs trying to track down Hal and some stolen financial records, and how Riley had taken them all in, including that menagerie of theirs…
The best thing about it was, a person had only to look at Riley to see that he utterly adored Summer. And, amazingly, he seemed fond of her kids, as well-which really did make him a hero in Mirabella’s book.
But this fiancé of Evie’s… Well, that was another story.
“He’s too slick,” she’d said to Jimmy Joe, the husband she adored. “I don’t trust him.”
Naturally, Jimmy Joe, who seldom had a bad word to say about anybody, had hedged. “Aw, hell, honey, that’s probably just the Las Vegas glitter that’s rubbed off on him, is all. He’s probably no different from anybody else, once you get to know him. Maybe we all just need to give him a chance.”
As if she wouldn’t! Just because she was opinionated didn’t mean she was unreasonable.