Lavender morning

the long version

"Jocelyn Minton is a woman torn between two worlds. Her mother grew up in a world of private schools and afternoon tea, yet married the local handyman. When she died Joce was five, and her father remarried into his own class, leaving Joce an outsider. Then she met Edilean Harcourt, sixty years her senior, but a kindred soul. When Miss Edi dies, leaving Jocelyn her worldly possessions, they include clues to a mystery dating from 1941 in a small town in Virginia. However, her benefactor's notorious past ensures that the townspeople know who Joce is, and they've plotted out her entire future, including who she is meant to marry. But Jocelyn has her own ideas about men - and secrets that no one wants revealed."--Publisher description.