Nora Roberts - Blue Dahlia

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Table of Contents

Dear Reader:

I dont have hobbies. I have passions. Gardening is one of my passions, and springwhen its time to get out there and dig in the dirtis my favorite season.

I live in the woods, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and my land is rough and rocky. A tough field for a passionate gardener to play in. Ive solved part of the problem with many raised beds, but the rocks still find a way. Every spring, its a battleme against rock, and most years I win.

Im fortunate to be married to a man who enjoys yard work. Because if I want to plant a daffodil bulb in the stony ground, Ive got to call my guy with the pick. But its worth it. Every spring when I see my daffodils popping, watch my willows greening, see the perennials Ive planted in place of rock spearing up, Im happy. Just as Im happy to get out there with my spade and cultivator to start prepping the soil for what I might plant this season.

Its hard, sweaty, dirty work, and it pleases me to do it, year after year. For me, a garden is always a work in progress, never quite finished, and always a delight to the eye. Nearly twenty years ago, my guy planted a tulip magnolia in front of our house. Now, every spring, my bedroom windows are full of those gorgeous pink blooms. And when they fade and drop, something else will flower to make me smile.

At the end of a long day, whether its writing or gardening, or just dealing with the dozens of chores life hands out, theres nothing quite like a walk in the garden to soothe the mind and heart.

So plant some flowers, watch them grow. The rewards far out-reach the toil.

NORA ROBERTS

Titles by Nora Roberts

HOT ICE
SACRED SINS
BRAZEN VIRTUE
SWEET REVENGE
PUBLIC SECRETS
GENUINE LIES
CARNAL INNOCENCE
DIVINE EVIL
HONEST ILLUSIONS
PRIVATE SCANDALS
HIDDEN RICHES
TRUE BETRAYALS
MONTANA SKY
SANCTUARY
HOMEPORT
THE REEF
RIVERS END
CAROLINA MOON
THE VILLA
MIDNIGHT BAYOU
THREE FATES
BIRTHRIGHT

Anthologies

FROM THE HEART
A LITTLE MAGIC
A LITTLE FATE

MOON SHADOWS (with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)

The Once Upon Series (with Jill Gregory, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Marianne Willman)

ONCE UPON A CASTLE
ONCE UPON A STAR
ONCE UPON A DREAM
ONCE UPON A ROSE
ONCE UPON A KISS
ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT

Series

The In the Garden Trilogy

BLUE DAHLIA

The Key Trilogy

KEY OF LIGHT
KEY OF KNOWLEDGE
KEY OF VALOR

The Irish Trilogy

JEWELS OF THE SUN
TEARS OF THE MOON
HEART OF THE SEA

The Chesapeake Bay Saga

SEA SWEPT
RISING TIDES
INNER HARBOR
CHESAPEAKE BLUE

Three Sisters Island Trilogy

DANCE UPON THE AIR
HEAVEN AND EARTH
FACE THE FIRE

The Born In Trilogy

BORN IN FIRE
BORN IN ICE
BORN IN SHAME

The Dream Trilogy

DARING TO DREAM
HOLDING THE DREAM
FINDING THE DREAM

Titles by Nora Roberts & J. D. Robb

REMEMBER WHEN

Titles by J. D. Robb(in order of publication)

NAKED IN DEATH
GLORY IN DEATH
IMMORTAL IN DEATH
RAPTURE IN DEATH
CEREMONY IN DEATH
VENGEANCE IN DEATH
HOLIDAY IN DEATH
CONSPIRACY IN DEATH
LOYALTY IN DEATH
WITNESS IN DEATH
JUDGMENT IN DEATH
BETRAYAL IN DEATH
SEDUCTION IN DEATH
REUNION IN DEATH
PURITY IN DEATH
PORTRAIT IN DEATH
IMITATION IN DEATH
DIVIDED IN DEATH

Anthologies

SILENT NIGHT (with Susan Plunkett, Dee Holmes, and Claire Cross)

OUT OF THIS WORLD (with Laurell K. Hamilton, Susan Krinard, and Maggie Shayne)

Also available ...

THE OFFICIAL NORA ROBERTS COMPANION (edited by Denise Little and Laura Hayden)

For Dan and Jason.
You may be men, but youll always be my boys.

If the plant root ball is tightly packed with roots,
these should be gently loosened.
They need to spread out after planting,
rather than continue to grow in a tight mass.

FROM THE TREASURY OF GARDENING, ON TRANSPLANTING POTTED PLANTS

And tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

WORDSWORTH

PROLOGUE

Memphis, Tennessee August 1892

BIRTHING A BASTARD WASNT IN THE PLANS. WHEN shed learned she was carrying her lovers child, the shock and panic turned quickly to anger.

There were ways of dealing with it, of course. A woman in her position had contacts, had avenues. But she was afraid of them, nearly as afraid of the abortionists as she was of what was growing, unwanted, inside her.

The mistress of a man like Reginald Harper couldnt afford pregnancy.

Hed kept her for nearly two years now, and kept her well. Oh, she knew he kept othersincluding his wifebut they didnt concern her.

She was still young, and she was beautiful. Youth and beauty were products that could be marketed. Shed done so, for nearly a decade, with steely mind and heart. And shed profited by them, polished them with the grace and charm shed learned by watching and emulating the fine ladies whod visited the grand house on the river where her mother had worked.

Shed been educateda bit. But more than books and music, shed learned the arts of flirtation.

Shed sold herself for the first time at fifteen and had pocketed knowledge along with the coin. But prostitution wasnt her goal, any more than domestic work or trudging off to the factory day after day. She knew the difference between whore and mistress. A whore traded quick and cold sex for pennies and was forgotten before the mans fly was buttoned again.

But a mistressa clever and successful mistressoffered romance, sophistication, conversation, gaiety along with the commodity between her legs. She was a companion, a wailing wall, a sexual fantasy. An ambitious mistress knew to demand nothing and gain much.

Amelia Ellen Conner had ambitions.

And shed achieved them. Or most of them.

Shed selected Reginald quite carefully. He wasnt handsome or brilliant of mind. But he was, as her research had assured her, very rich and very unfaithful to the thin and proper wife who presided over Harper House.

He had a woman in Natchez, and it was said he kept another in New Orleans. He could afford another, so Amelia set her sights on him. Wooed and won him.

At twenty-four, she lived in a pretty house on South Main and had three servants of her own. Her wardrobe was full of beautiful clothes, and her jewelry case sparkled.

It was true she wasnt received by the fine ladies shed once envied, but there was a fashionable half world where a woman of her station was welcome. Where she was envied.

She threw lavish parties. She traveled. She lived. Then, hardly more than a year after Reginald had tucked her into that pretty house, her clever, craftily designed world crashed.

She would have hidden it from him until shed gathered the courage to visit the red-light district and end the thing. But hed caught her when she was violently ill, and hed studied her face with those dark, shrewd eyes.

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