Taggert 3- Sweet Liar

Critical acclaim for the marvelous romances of
Jude Deveraux

THE SUMMERHOUSE


"Deveraux is at the top of her game here as she uses the time-travel
motif that was so popular in A Knight in Shining Armor, successfully
updating it with a female buddy twist that will make fans smile."

-Booklist

"Entertaining summer reading."

-The Port St. Lucie News (FL)



"Leslie, Madison, and Ellie wiggle quickly into readers' hearts as their
tales are unfolded.... [A] wonderful, heartwarming tale of friendship and
love."

-America Online Romance Fiction Forum


TEMPTATION


"Deveraux['s] lively pace and happy endings...will keep readers turning
pages."

-Publishers Weekly


HIGH TIDE


A Romantic Times Top Pick

"High Tide is packed full of warmth, humor, sensual tension, and exciting
adventure. What more could you ask of a book?"

-Romantic Times

Books by Jude Deveraux
The Velvet Promise

Highland Velvet

Velvet Song

Velvet Angel

Sweetbriar

Counterfeit Lady

Lost Lady

Riverlady

Twin of Fire

Twin of Ice

The Temptress

The Raider

The Princess

The Awakening

The Maiden

The Taming

The Conquest

A Knight in Shining Armor

Wishes

Mountain Laurel

The Duchess

Eternity

Sweet Liar

The Invitation

Remembrance

The Heiress

Legend

An Angel for Emily

The Blessing

High Tide

Temptation

The Summerhouse

Forever...A Novel of Good and Evil, Love and Hope

Published by POCKET BOOKS









This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents
are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is
entirely coincidental.

"Lady Luck Blues." Words and music by Clarence Williams and W. Weber.
Copyright 1924 by MCA Music Publishing, a Division of MCA Inc., New York,
NY 10019, and Great Standards Music Publishing Company. Copyright
renewed. Used by permission. All rights reserved.



POCKET BOOKS, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Copyright © 1992 by Deveraux Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket
Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

ISBN: 0-7434-5922-9

POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com





Prologue



Louisville, Kentucky
January 1991




"W hy would my father do something like this to me? I thought he loved
me," Samantha Elliot said to the man who had been her father's lawyer and
friend for as long as she could remember. That this soft-spoken man had
colluded with her father intensified the hurt and the sense of
abandonment that she was feeling.

Not that she needed anything to intensify the pain she already felt.
Three hours ago she had stood by the grave of her father and watched with
hot, dry eyes as they lowered his coffin into the ground. She was only
twenty-eight years old, yet she had already seen more death than most
people experience in a lifetime. She was the only one left now. Her
parents were gone; her grandparents were gone; and Richard, her husband,
might as well be dead, for she'd received the final divorce papers on the
day her father died.

"Samantha," the attorney said, his voice soft and pleading. "Your father
did love you. He loved you very, very much, and it's because he loved you
that he made this request of you." He was watching her closely; his wife
had said she was worried that Samantha had not shed a tear since her
father had died. "Good," the attorney had said. "She has her father's
strength."

"But her father wasn't strong, was he?" his wife had snapped in return.
"It was always Samantha who had the strength. And now she's stood by and
watched her father shrivel and die before her eyes, yet she's taken it
all without a tear."

"Dave always said Samantha was his rock." The lawyer closed his briefcase
and left the house before his wife could say anything more, for he was
dreading what she was going to say when the contents of David Elliot's
will became public knowledge.

Now, watching Samantha as she stood in her father's library, he could
feel sweat trickling down his neck as he remembered trying to talk Dave