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The morning sun shot shafts of light over the mountains. It picked up the hints of red and gold among the deep green leaves and had them glowing. From somewhere in the woods came a rustling as a rabbit darted back to its burrow, while overhead a bird chirped with an insistent cheerfulness. Clinging to the line of fences along the road were clumps of honeysuckle. The light scent from the few lingering blossoms wafted in the air. In a distant field a farmer and his son harvested the last of the summer hay. The rumble of the baler was steady and distinct.
Over the mile trek to town only one car passed. Its driver lifted his hand in a salute. Shane waved back. It was good to be home.
Walking on the grassy shoulder of the road, she plucked a blossom of honeysuckle and, as she had as a child, drew in the fleetingly sweet aroma. When she crushed the flower between her fingers, its fragrance briefly intensified. It was a scent she associated with summer, like barbecue smoke and new grass. But this was summer's end.
Shane looked forward to fall eagerly, when the mountains would be at their best. Then the colors were breathtaking and the air was clean and crisp. When the wind came, the world would be full of sound and flying leaves. It was the time of woodsmoke and fallen acorns.
Curiously, she felt as though she'd never been away. She might still have been twenty-one, walking from her grandmother's to Sharpsburg to buy a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread. The busy Baltimore streets, the sidewalks and crowds of the last four years might have been a dream. She might never have spent those four years teaching in an inner-city school, correcting exams and attending faculty meetings.
Yet four years had passed. Her grandmother's narrow two-story house was now Shane's. The uneven, wooded three acres of land were hers as well. And while the mountains and woods were the same, Shane was not.
Physically, she looked almost as she had when she had left western Maryland for the job in a Baltimore high school. She was small in height and frame, with a slender figure that had never developed the curves and roundness she'd hoped for. Her face was subtly triangular with its creamy skin touched with warm color. It had been called peaches and cream often enough to make Shane wince. There were dimples that flashed when she smiled, rather than the elegant cheekbones she had wished for. Her nose was small, dusted with freckles, tilted up at the end. Pert. Shane had suffered the word throughout her life.
Under thin arched brows, her eyes were large and dark. Whatever emotion she felt was mirrored in them. They were rarely cool. Habitually, she wore her hair short, and it curled naturally to frame her face in a deep honey blond. As her temperament was almost invariably happy, her face was usually animated, her small, sculpted mouth tilted up. The adjective used most to describe her was cute. Shane had grown to detest the word, but lived with it. Nothing could be done to alter sharp, vital attractiveness into sultry beauty.
As she rounded the last curve in the road before coming into town, she had a sudden flash of having done so before—as a child, as a teenager, as a girl on the brink of womanhood. It gave her a sense of security and belonging. Nothing in the city had ever given her the simple pleasure of being part of the whole.
Laughing, she took the final yards at a run, then burst through the door of the general store. The bells jingled fiercely before it slammed shut.
"Hi!"
"Hi, yourself." The woman behind the counter grinned at her. "You're out early this morning."
"When I woke up, I discovered I was out of coffee." Spotting the box of fresh doughnuts on the counter, Shane rolled her eyes and headed for them. "Oh, Donna, cream filled?"
"Yeah." Donna watched with an envious sigh as Shane chose one and bit into it. For the better part of twenty years, she'd seen Shane eat like a linebacker without gaining an ounce of fat.
Though they had grown up together, they were as different as night and day. Where Shane was fair, Donna was dark. Shane was small; Donna was tall and well rounded. For most of their lives, Donna had been content to play follower to Shane's leader. Shane was the adventurer. Donna had liked nothing better than to point out all the flaws in whatever plans she was hatching, then wholeheartedly fall in with it.
"So, how are you settling in?"
"Pretty well," Shane answered with her mouth full.
"You've hardly been in since you got back in town."
"There's been so much to do. Gran couldn't keep the place up the last few years." Both affection and grief came through in her voice. "She was always more interested in her gardening than a leaky roof. Maybe if I had stayed—"
"Oh, now don't start blaming yourself again." Donna cut her off, drawing her straight dark brows together. "You know she wanted you to take that teaching job. Faye Abbott lived to be ninety-four. That's more than a lot of people can hope for. And she was a feisty old devil right to the end."
Shane laughed. "You're absolutely right. Sometimes I'm sure she's sitting in her kitchen rocker making certain I wash up my dishes at night." The thought made her want to sigh for the childhood that was gone, but she pushed the mood away. "I saw Amos Messner out in the field with his son haying." After finishing off the doughnut, Shane dusted her hands on the seat of her pants. "I thought Bob was in the army."
"Got discharged last week. He's going to marry a girl he met in North Carolina."
"No kidding?"
Donna smiled smugly. It always pleased her, as proprietor of the general store, to be the ears and eyes of the town. "She's coming to visit next month. She's a legal secretary."
"How old is she?" Shane demanded, testing.
"Twenty-two."
Throwing back her head, Shane laughed in delight. "Oh, Donna, you're terrific. I feel as though I've never been away."
The familiar unrestricted laugh made Donna grin. "I'm glad you're back. We missed you."
Shane settled a hip against the counter. "Where's Benji?"
"Dave's got him upstairs." Donna preened a bit, thinking of her husband and son. "Letting that little devil loose down here's only asking for trouble. We'll switch off after lunch."
"That's the beauty of living on top of your business."
Finding the opening she had hoped for, Donna pounced on it. "Shane, are you still thinking about converting the house?"
"Not thinking," Shane corrected. "I'm going to do it." She hurried on, knowing what was about to follow. "There's always room for another small antique shop, and with the museum attached, it'll be distinctive."
"But it's such a risk," Donna pointed out. The excited gleam in Shane's eyes had her worrying all the more. She'd seen the same gleam before the beginning of any number of outrageous and wonderful plots. "The expense—"
"I have enough to set things up." Shane shrugged off the pessimism. "And most of my stock can come straight out of the house for now. I want to do it, Donna," she went on as her friend frowned at her. "My own place, my own business." She glanced around the compact, well-stocked store. "You should know what I mean."
"Yes, but I have Dave to help out, to lean on. I don't think I could face starting or managing a business all on my own."
"It's going to work." Her eyes drifted beyond Donna, fixed on their own vision. "I can already see how it's going to look when I'm finished."
"All the remodeling."
"The basic structure of the house will stay the same," Shane countered. "Modifications, repairs." She brushed them away with the back of her hand. "A great deal of it would have to be done if I were simply going to live there."
"Licenses, permits."
"I've applied for everything."
"Taxes."
"I've already seen an accountant." She grinned as Donna sighed. "I have a good location, a solid knowledge of antiques, and I can re-create every battle of the Civil War."
"And do at the least provocation."
"Be careful," Shane warned her, "or I'll give you another rundown on the Battle of Antietam."
When the bells on the door jingled again, Donna heaved an exaggerated sigh of relief. "Hi, Stu."
The next ten minutes were spent in light gossiping as Donna rang up and bagged dry goods. It would take little time to catch up on the news Shane had missed over the last four years.
Shane was accepted as an oddity—the hometown girl who had gone to the city and come back with big ideas. She knew that to the older residents of the town and countryside she would always be Faye Abbott's granddaughter. They were a proprietary people, and she was one of their own. She hadn't settled down and married Cy Trainer's boy as predicted, but she was back now.
"Stu never changes," Donna said when she was alone with Shane again. "Remember in high school when we were sophomores and he was a senior, captain of the football team and the best-looking hunk in a sweaty jersey?"
"And nothing much upstairs," Shane added dryly.
"You always did go for the intellectual type. Hey," she continued before Shane could retort, "I might just have one for you."
"Have one what?"
"An intellectual. At least that's how he strikes me. He's your neighbor too," she added with a growing smile.
"My neighbor?"
"He bought the old Farley place. Moved in early last week."
"The Farley place?" Shane's brows arched, giving Donna the satisfaction of knowing she was announcing fresh news. "The house was all but gutted by the fire. Who'd be fool enough to buy that ramshackle barn of a place?"
"Vance Banning," Donna told her. "He's from Washington, D.C."
After considering the implications of this, Shane shrugged. "Well, I suppose it's a choice piece of land even if the house should be condemned." Wandering to a shelf, she selected a pound can of coffee then set it on the counter without checking the price. "I guess he bought it for a tax shelter or something."
"I don't think so." Donna rang up the coffee and waited while Shane dug bills out of her back pocket. "He's fixing it up."
"The courageous type." Absently, she pocketed the loose change.
"All by himself too," Donna added, fussing with...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
What?,
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This review is from: First Impressions: First Impressions\Blithe Images (Mass Market Paperback)
I got this book against my better judgement because I was desperate for something to read and Nora Roberts is a pretty good writer. This book is made up of 2 short stories. The first one wasn't half bad for being so short. The heroine was very lovable and I liked her immediately. She was charming and loved the hero right away and wasn't afraid to love him. I grow bored with books where the heroine has some chip on her shoulder and acts like a total snot the whole time and I wonder how the hero would fall in love with her. The second book was horrid! It was all written from the heroines perspective and so you never got to know the hero or what he was thinking. He talked terrible to the heroine and I found nothing to like about him. There were no love scenes either. :(
Ater I read this book I found out they were written in 1982 and 1984. I guess that explains a lot. I don't think I would have bought it if I knew that they were just recycled books. I feel that's a little misleading. You can really tell these were some of her first books. Don't buy this book or even borrow it...it will be a waste of your time. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 is the first story.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice romantic book,
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This review is from: First Impressions: First Impressions\Blithe Images (Mass Market Paperback)
This is the first book I have read by Nora Roberts. This has 2 different stories in the same book. I really enjoyed the first book - First Impressions. It was a romantic story that I plan to read again. I liked the way the author told the story. The second book - Blithe Images I did not care for. It was boring and moved slow for me. The story was nothing like the first. I was not impressed but I liked the first one so much I wanted to buy the book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three and a half stars.,
This review is from: First Impressions: First Impressions\Blithe Images (Mass Market Paperback)
I've given this four stars purely based on the first book alone. Honestly, the second novella disgusts me a little and if I didn't like First Impressions so much, this would have a much lower rating.FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The novella is quite good for a short story. Vance and Shane are very likable characters and the chemistry between them is evident from the get-go. Shane is refreshing. What I loved about her was the fact that she was not blind to Vance's faults. She knew that he was pretty much an insufferable, rude man and that he was harboring secrets. She acknowledged that they were his to keep until he chose to tell her the truth. After Vance and Shane make love for the first time, Vance vows to himself that he's going to tell her the truth in the morning. He just wants a few hours before his true identity is revealed to her, which is understandable with all the pressures that his other life has. Unfortunately for both of them, Shane's mother -- if you can even call her that; it's really quite an insult to all mothers out there to be lumped in the same category with her -- blows into town looking for some fast cash. When she comes across Vance, all she sees is dollar signs. Vance, of course, rejects the woman and tells her that she won't get another penny from Shane or from him. Anne is quite furious and tells Shane the truth about Vance in the worst possible way, painting him in a pretty shoddy light to boot. Shane is naturally devastated when it all comes out. The scenes following are heartbreaking for the couple. It's wonderfully written and the best thing about it all is when Shane is forced to listen to Vance and when she does, she realizes that she knew all along that he's had secrets of his own. She just didn't know the extent of them. She is probably one of the first heroines that I've come across that actually realizes that she's blown things out of proportion and acknowledged that she went into it with both eyes opened. It was so refreshing. Two thumbs up for this first novella. BLITHE IMAGES: This book was absolutely terrible. I do keep in mind that this was one of Roberts' earlier books, so her writing wasn't nearly as strong as it is now. It was evident in her character development. Hilary could have been a likable character, but she was a little difficult to keep up with. One minute she was completely against all things Bret and then she was in love with him the next? I felt like a missed a couple hundred pages. It didn't help matters that Bret was pretty much a complete jerk, and that's a mild term. There was no insight for readers to his character at all. The only things we saw were that he essentially had a girlfriend, yet he kept toying with Hilary and then he would get angry when she didn't react the way he wanted her to. He went so far as to call her a tease when things were moving too fast for her and then he basically made fun of the fact that she was still a virgin at the age of 24. The one thing that helped this "book" was the fact that Hilary finally reached her breaking point and told Bret to bugger off. She shoved him and his insufferable girlfriend out of her apartment and got the hell out while she still good. Of course it was completely expected that Bret would go chasing after her and show up at her family farm. I can even see her family recognizing that he was the source of Hilary's discomfort and make it to where she had to at least gain closure from it. What really bugged me about everything was the way that he "proposed" marriage. He didn't propose. He demanded. He was talking to her father like she was some well-bred animal instead of a woman (which she thankfully points out to him). He hardly makes a convincing argument to win her over and when he does go into some kind of explanation, it's creepy, truthfully. He was attracted to her face the first time he saw it and so he hires her to get close to her? That seems a little close to stalking. But I digress. It is what it is and I suppose all I can really do is complain about it and attempt to ward others away from this terrible piece of writing. It makes me happy this was a free book. But please do bear in mind that First Impressions is not bad at all! Just skip this one.
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