Southern Lights

Chapter 8

When Sava

Sava

“Good morning,” Sava

“We’ve been waiting for you to get up. We didn’t want to wake you,” the older of the two said. “Mr. Beaumont said he’d be back at eleven to pick you up. He had to do some things at the office. And Mrs. Beaumont is at the hairdresser and has a luncheon in town after that.” That meant her father would be back in half an hour for the sightseeing he’d promised. The two women introduced themselves as Tallulah and Jane. Tallulah was Jed’s wife, and Jane was from Memphis, and had an accent but a different one. Sava

They asked her what she’d like for breakfast, and she said cereal would be fine and she could help herself, but they insisted on serving her on flowered china, which they set on a delicately embroidered linen mat. Everything was fancy here. Nothing was simple or plain or practical, like at home. She felt totally out of her depth. She and her mother lived nicely, but nothing even remotely like this. This was another world. She realized now too what a shock it must have been for her mother to come back from all this after being banished. She must have felt like Cinderella after the ball, when the coach turned into a pumpkin, and the white horses into mice, and in her case Prince Charming into a rat. Sava

She was just finishing her cereal when her father returned and strode into the kitchen looking handsome as ever in an immaculately tailored tweed jacket and gray slacks.

“Hi, Sava

“Like a baby.”

“Ready for the grand tour?” She nodded, thanked the two ladies in their white uniforms with starched lace aprons, and followed him into the front hall. She went to get a jacket and her bag, since it was cool but not cold and there was a breeze off the ocean, as there often was in Charleston, which translated to crushing humidity in summer. And five minutes later they were in his car, a Jaguar, and heading toward the heart of town.

They chatted easily about the city, and the first place he took her was Fort Sumter for a lesson in local history. It was where the first shot had been fired in the War Between the States. Sava

From there he took her to the French Quarter to look around, and then to lunch at a quaint restaurant with a back garden. The food was spicy local fare, with crab soup and crab cakes, shrimp and rice, all in delicate sauces with aromatic spices. It was delicious, and they laughed together at lunch, and afterward he took her on a horse-drawn carriage ride down cobblestone streets, where they saw more historic sights, and he pointed out several popular coffeehouses to her, where young people hung out.

Afterward he drove her past several shops he said she might like to check out later, and past the spectacular beaches of Sullivan Island on the way home.

They got back to the house at four-thirty after a wonderful day together. And her father had told her over lunch that she was starting school the next day. It was all arranged. She would be a senior, of course, and she was welcome to attend their graduation and walk with the other students, although her official diploma would come from her school in New York. He had had her transcript faxed by her school, and the one in Charleston was impressed by her grades. He was going to drive her there in the morning himself, and pick her up on her first day, and after that he said she could drive herself. He had had the car detailed for her that day. He had left nothing out, and had taken care of everything, and she was touched.

They were both smiling and chatting easily as they walked into the house, and both of them were startled to find themselves face-to-face with Luisa, who had just come in too, from her lunch. And when she saw them, it was too late for her to avoid them or hide. The dreaded meeting between Sava

“Hello,” Sava

“This is Sava

“I am not her stepmother,” she said fiercely. “She may be your daughter, but she’s not mine, in any way or form. And don’t forget who your real daughter is in this house.”

“They’re both my real daughters,” Tom said firmly, as Sava

“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Luisa said, as she walked past them to the kitchen to speak to the cook about di

Tom looked at her apologetically and shrugged. “She’ll calm down. This is hard for her,” he said lamely, unable to explain his wife’s appalling conduct and embarrassed by it. Sava

“Have you all lost your minds?” she said to her husband and daughter. “This girl is a stranger to us. She’s a guest here, brought by your father. She is not part of our family, and surely not of mine. I’d like you both to remember that, and to keep in mind just who I am here. I’m your mother and your wife, and whatever mistakes your father made in his past are not my business or my problem, or yours,” she said, looking straight at Daisy, who took her arms from around her sister’s waist, so as not to upset her mother further. “We’ll get through this, since we have to, but there is no need to act as though you’ve found some long-lost relative and brought her home. This is our home, not hers. And she is not my relative, or yours,” she said to Daisy again, and with that she glared at her husband, ignored Sava

“Daddy, maybe I should go,” she whispered to her father. “I’ll be fine in New York. Mom was just being nervous. I don’t want to cause any trouble here.” Nor be treated like a pariah, or abused by a woman who clearly hated her.