Low Country Liar

Janet Dailey

Janet Dailey's Americana Series

Dangerous Masquerade (Alabama)

Northern Magic (Alaska)

Sonora Sundown (Arizona)

Valley Of the Vapours (Arkansas)

Fire And Ice (California)

After the Storm (Colorado)

Difficult Decision (Connecticut)

The Matchmakers (Delaware)

Southern Nights (Florida)

Night Of The Cotillion (Georgia)

Kona Winds (Hawaii)

The Travelling Kind (Idaho)

A Lyon's Share (Illinois)

The Indy Man (Indiana)

The Homeplace (Iowa)

The Mating Season (Kansas)

Bluegrass King (Kentucky)

The Bride Of The Delta Queen (Louisiana)

Summer Mahogany (Maine)

Bed Of Grass (Maryland)

That Boston Man (Massachusetts)

Enemy In Camp (Michigan)

Giant Of Mesabi (Minnesota)

A Tradition Of Pride (Mississippi)

Show Me (Missouri)

Big Sky Country (Montana)

Boss Man From Ogallala (Nebraska)

Reilly's Woman (Nevada)

Heart Of Stone (New Hampshire)

One Of The Boys (New Jersey)

Land Of Enchantment (New Mexico)

Beware Of The Stranger (New York)

That Carolina Summer (North Carolina)

Lord Of the High Lonesome (North Dakota)

The Widow And The Wastrel (Ohio)

Six White Horses (Oklahoma)

To Tell The Truth (Oregon)

The Thawing Of Mara (Pennsylvania)

Strange Bedfellow (Rhode Island)

Low Country Liar (South Carolina)

Dakota Dreamin' (South Dakota)

Sentimental Journey (Tennessee)

Savage Land (Texas)

A Land Called Deseret (Utah)

Green Mountain Man (Vermont)

Tidewater Lover (Virginia)

For Mike's Sake (Washington)

Wild And Wonderful (West Virginia)

With A Little Luck (Wisconsin)

Darling Jenny (Wyoming)

Other Janet Dailey Titles You Might Enjoy

American Dreams

Aspen Gold

Fiesta San Antonio

For Bitter Or Worse

The Great Alone

Heiress

The Ivory Cane

Legacies

Masquerade

The Master Fiddler

No Quarter Asked

Rivals

Something Extra

Sweet Promise

Tangled Vines

Introduction

Introducing JANET DAILEY AMERICANA. Every novel in this collection is your passport to a romantic tour of the United States through time-honored favorites by America's First Lady of romance fiction. Each of the fifty novels is set in a different state, researched by Janet and her husband, Bill. For the Daileys it was an odyssey of discovery. For you, it's the journey of a lifetime.

Preface

When I first started writing back in the Seventies, my husband Bill and I were retired and traveling all over the States with our home—a 34' travel trailer—in tow. That's when Bill came up with the great idea of my writing a romance novel set in each one of our fifty states. It was an idea I ultimately accomplished before switching to mainstream fiction and hitting all the international bestseller lists.

As we were preparing to reissue these early titles, I initially planned to update them all—modernize them, so to speak, and bring them into the new high-tech age. Then I realized I couldn't do that successfully any more than I could take a dress from the Seventies and redesign it into one that would look as if it were made yesterday. That's when I saw that the true charm of these novels is their look back on another time and another age. Over the years, they have become historical novels, however recent the history. When you read them yourself, I know you will feel the same.

So, enjoy, and happy reading to all!
 

Chapter One

WITH A RELAXED SIGH Lisa Talmadge leaned against the curling backrest of the chair. It was a beautifully restored antique, reupholstered in a patterned brocade of rust, orange and brown. It complemented perfectly the solid rust-colored chair her aunt sat in.

Lisa felt she had been talking nonstop since she arrived, bringing her aunt up-to-date on the latest family happenings. Soon it would be time to get down to the true reason for her visit, which was more than just a wish to see her favorite aunt. Her aunt seemed to be of the same mind.

"We've gotten rid of the preliminaries, Lisa, I now know you've had a safe trip from Baltimore. Both your parents are fine. Your brother is having girl problems as usual. You have a drink in hand to loosen your tongue, so why don't you tell me what really brought you to Charleston?"

At fifty-two, Miriam Talmadge was warm, vivacious and darkly brunette. The latter fact Lisa would never have questioned her hairdresser about. She knew that Mitzi, as Miriam Talmadge was affectionately known by those who loved her, would grow old as gracefully as she stayed young at heart.

It had been several years since Lisa had last spent any time with her aunt. Not since Mitzi had moved back to her home town of Charleston, located on the southern end of the coastal flatlands that were known to all South Carolinians as the Low Country.

Lisa didn't try to hide the smile her aunt's pointed question had prompted. "Believe it or not, Mitzi, you brought me to Charleston."

"Me? Goodness, that's quite a burden." A wry smile deepened the corners of her mobile mouth. "I hope you haven't sought me out about man problems. Considering the mess I made of my marriage, I'm the last one to run to for advice."

"You can't claim sole responsibility for the failure of your marriage. Uncle Simon had a part in it somewhere." Lisa dismissed the statement with a shake of her silver blond hair, a gold hooped earring glittering through the long silk strands.

"That's what Slade says, too," Mitzi Talmadge sighed.

Quickly Lisa lowered her head, her jaw tightening at the name. Her aunt had just put a name to the reason Lisa had come. For the time being, however, that was Lisa's secret until she could find out what was really going on.

"But you must remember," Mitzi was continuing, and Lisa concentrated on what she was saying, "that I was raised in an era where divorce was a scandal and a woman was supposed to make the marriage last no matter what. It's understandable, I suppose, that I should have guilty feelings regarding the failure of mine. Simon and l just weren't suited at all." There was a reflective look in her dark eyes as she smiled, her cheeks dimpling. "I married him because he was so quiet. And I divorced him because he was so quiet," she laughed. "Which proves what an eternal romantic I am at heart, doesn't it? I was all caught up in the image of the strong, silent type when that wasn't what I really wanted or needed. Poor Simon didn't get any bargain with me either. I was so disorganized when it came to anything outside of my writing that it drove him to distraction. He wanted the unobtrusive, homemaking kind of wife who always had a delicious meal ready at promptly seven o'clock. I could barely boil water without a crisis. Ours was a very sad mismatch, but I'm glad he had a few happy years with his second wife before he died," she concluded.

"What about you, Mitzi? You've had time to meet somebody new?"
The question was put innocently, but there was a sharp edge to the look in Lisa's olive green eyes. "Tell me about the men in your life."

"Men in the plural? You make me sound like a femme fatale. At my age!" Mitzi shook her head laughingly, a bright twinkle in her eyes. "You're going to be awfully good for my morale, Lisa. And exactly how did the subject get around to my love life when I asked about yours?"

"I thought I'd dodged the question rather expertly." Lisa smiled broadly. "The fact is at the present time I don't have a love life."

"I find that extremely hard to believe. You've grown into a beautiful woman, Lisa Talmadge, with your mother's cheekbones and her blond hair. Those green eyes are definitely from the Talmadge side, outlined with sooty lashes just the way Simon's were. They're definitely your most striking feature. But you're sidetracking me again," Mitzi scolded with mock reproof. "Now why have you come? Did you break up with some special man?

"No. There isn't anyone 'special.'" Lisa raised her hands, making mock quotation marks with her fingers. "I'm escaping from nothing but work," she insisted.

"And that young man you were engaged to?" Mitzi prompted, tipping her head slightly downward to watch Lisa's expression closely.

"Michel? That was over three years ago when I graduated from college." Lisa picked up her cocktail, touching a forefinger to the lime wedge floating on top and watching it bob in the liquid.

"What really happened between you two?"

"A conflict of careers. He wanted a country-club wife and I wanted to work—that's why I'd got my degree. He didn't see it that way. To him, my education was supposed to be just a safeguard for my future in case anything ever happened to him. In the meantime he wanted me home taking care of him and raising a family." Lisa shrugged. The bitterness had long since fled. "I didn't object to that as much as I objected to him telling me that was what I wanted. It's just as well, because it would never have worked between us."

"You're not sorry, then?" Mitzi prompted.

"Not a bit," Lisa returned without any regret. "Now I just steer clear of the strong, masterful types like Michel with their super male egos that constantly have to be fed."

"You said you were escaping from your job. Hasn't it turned out to be what you wanted?" The older woman relaxed in the cushioned chair, its rusty orange a pleasant contrast to her dark coloring. "Your last letter seemed fried with complaints about staff and management."

"I think you can mark that up to almost a year and a half without a vacation rather than the job," Lisa stated, following her aunt's suit and leaning back in her chair. "Since the television station gave the go-ahead on the new show a year ago, it's been hectic, to say the least, but very
rewarding and satisfying. I'd only worked as an assistant on other shows. This is the first one I've produced myself, so I put in a lot of hours to prove myself, postponing my vacation, certain the show would fall apart without me. Finally I realized I would fall apart if I didn't get away for a while."