An Old Fashioned Southern Romance Novel (14 page)

“The baron was quite smitten with you, Ms. Annabella.”

“How can you tell?”

“He has requested your presence at a royal function this weekend.”

“What function?” Annabella wanted to know.

“He would like you to be his guest at the royal wedding.”

“
The
royal wedding? The one that will be televised for all the world to see? I must be dreaming! This cannot be real.”

“It’s real, Dear. Your dreams are finally coming true.”

Mrs. Crabtree left the room and Annabella plopped backwards onto the bed. Mrs. Crabtree was right. Her dreams were finally coming true. Annabella smiled and continued to reflect on the evening. Soon, Mrs. Crabtree returned.

“You have a visitor, Dear.”
“Is it him?” Annabella wanted to know.

“No, Dear.”

Annabella straightened herself up and started down the stairs. She stopped about halfway when she heard an unmistakable southern accent. She was horrified. There was no way Caroline was there. Annabella would surely die if Caroline had come all this way to ruin her life and destroy her dreams. She stood frozen on the steps and listened to make sure she was not hallucinating. Caroline was impatient and began up the steps to find out what was keeping Annabella. When she turned the corner, she saw the disappointment in her friend’s eyes.

“This is the welcome I get for coming halfway around the world to rescue you?”

“Yes, because I don’t need rescuing!” Annabella screamed at her friend.

“Well, Hattie and I will just be leaving then,” she warned Annabella.

“Hattie? Hattie’s here? Are the two of you stark, raving mad?”

Annabella continued down the steps and came face to face with her longtime caretaker.

“Et tu, Brute`?” She asked Hattie, in Caesar’s famous last words.

“‘Fraid so, Kiddo, ” Hattie replied.

“Why?” Annabella wanted to know.

“Anna, you have unfinished business at home and I need you to come back and finish your business.”

“Hattie, Warrenton and I are done, finished, caput! Besides, I have met someone special and I am attending the royal wedding with him this weekend.”

“That’s lovely, Annabella. But you see, there is a problem at home and only you can solve it.”

“I know Warrenton is getting married and I do not care. I am not going to try to stop that God-forsaken wedding,” Annabella pushed back.

“That’s not it, Anna. You see, Warrenton is in the hospital.”

“What on earth for?”

“He is in the mental hospital
. He needs someone to vouch for his sanity. As you know, his father recently died and his mother is a former mental patient herself. So, there is no one to vouch for his sanity but you. If you don’t, he could be institutionalized for God knows how long. They may keep him forever.”

“How is this my problem?” Annabella wanted to know.

“Because despite everything, you are his friend. Sadly, you are the only friend he has.”

“What about Marigold? Can’t she vouch for him?”

“Marigold is waiting to marry the richest man in town. Of course she will vouch for him. She will say anything to get him released. They are not going to take her word for it.”

“Hattie, this is crazy. The royal wedding is this weekend and I intend to be there on the arm of a baron. Now, please help me understand why I should choose some two-bit, insecure gigolo who dumped me for some low-life trash over my dashing baron. Please help me understand why it is even fair for you to come all the way here to ask me to do something so utter asinine and selfless. It is beyond me that you would even think I would consider it. I have been searching for this kind of happiness for as long as I can remember and as soon as I find it, you want me to just give it up and go back to that backwoods hellhole and save that idiot from himself? Has it ever occurred to you, to the two
of you, that perhaps Warrenton Bingham Boatwright
is
insane? I mean, look at the choices he’s made. Perhaps he is right where he belongs. That way, his father’s money is safe and out of the paws of that woman. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Warrenton being locked up and me being the only person who can save him. Because if it were left up to me, he would rot in hell!”

Chapter Twenty

Warrenton was safely out of the hospital, but he did not like the conditions. He was released into Annabella’s custody and she was designated as his caretaker. She was charged with the task of monitoring him and making sure he didn’t do anything to harm himself until a court could determine his mental state. He was to be evaluated by different psychiatrists and the results of those evaluations submitted to the court. Until then, he was at the mercy of Annabella and he was as opposed to the terms as she was.

“Can someone explain to me how I ended up living with this dote of a man when I had a debonair baron hanging on my every word in London?” Annabella wanted to know.

“It’s what we do for our friends, Annabella. We never know when we will need someone to look after us.”

“I just want know how I ended up being the only friend this man has. I am not even all that fond of him.”

“You lie like a rug, Anna. You love him and you know it. Now, the arrangement may not be the most ideal, but I am sure you and Warrenton can piece out what you need to from this relationship.”

Annabella was resolved to staying in Warrenton’s
guest house with him, per the court’s instructions, until his mental health could be evaluated, but she had some very stringent rules. She did not want to give even the appearance of impropriety. She resided on the main level and Warrenton was confined to the upstairs. The domestic help cooked and cleaned for him as they always did, but he was now on a budget. The court restricted his access to his father’s money, pending the evaluation. So, Warrenton Bingham Boatwright was operating on a fixed income for the first time in his life and he did not appreciate it. The only person more put out by the arrangement was Marigold. She was sure that the entire arrangement was Annabella’s doing and she was resolved to not let Annabella come between them. Marigold’s visits were supervised because the court had not determined the stability of Warrenton’s mental state and they wanted to be sure Marigold did not have any undue influence over him. The move put a damper on Marigold’s already shaky wedding plans because now not only did she not have any place to spend Warrenton’s money, she no longer had unlimited access to it. So, for weeks Marigold would come to spend time with Warrenton. As time passed, the visits became fewer and further in between, as well as shorter and more awkward. She began to wonder if Warrenton had concocted the whole thing to get rid of her. But, with the family fortune frozen she could not get a hold of it even if she pursued her previous litigation against him. She was now questioning whether she had gotten the better of Warrenton or not. Everything she schemed on was falling apart and she was going to be left with nothing - which is exactly what she started with. She still had not received the funds from her settlement with Annabella because it was being held in a trust until she settled with Warrenton. So, she had not gotten anything thus far and it appeared that she never would. Her relationship with Warrenton had been based on coercion and deception and now the hand she used to force him was being pinned behind her back.

Chapter
Twenty-One

Annabella beamed as she finished reading her letter from the baron. It had been weeks and he had surely not forgotten her. He wrote her a letter each week and she cherished them all. She crafted her own special letters to him, sealed with her signature fragrance. She hoped they still smelled as sweet when they arrived. She wondered how someone so busy, so important, managed to hand write a personal letter each week. It was rare to find someone as old-fashioned as she was, who did not use email or cellular phones. Annabella favored paper and pen to almost any communications medium and she felt like kismet brought her and the baron together.
Warrenton always seemed bothered when he entered the kitchen to find her parlaying over one of the letters or writing one back. He did not understand the type of communication they had and wondered if anything could get accomplished with such slow-moving contact.

“You are not getting any younger, Annabella,” Warrenton reminded her. “You should consider a more instantaneous form of communique
.”

“I shall keep that in mind when I start taking dating tips from people who get engaged to their extortionists.”

“At least I am engaged. You are no more closer to marriage than you were when you were 10 years-old,” Warrenton told her.

“Yes, and I have you to thank for that. Maybe I should return to London and have you returned to the asylum.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

“You don’t know me as well as you think,” Annabella threatened him. “Besides, are you sure you are still
engaged? Marigold hasn’t been around much since her access to Daddy Boatwright’s money has been restricted.”

“You are just jealous.”

“Yes, Warren. I am jealous because I am a beautiful, rich socialite who is dating a fabulous baron in London, England. I am green with envy of a trailer-trash tramp who makes a living nose-diving in front of slow-moving vehicles for cash settlements that never pay out. I am blind with rage that I have an eighteen inch waistline and can eat anything I want. I have friends who will fly across the country to make sure that I am happy. Dear God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Warrenton looked cross. Annabella always got the better of him and he could not match wits with her.
What’s more, she was right. She had nothing to be jealous about – except for the obvious. Marigold was engaged to Warrenton and Annabella wasn’t.

“Yes, you have everything. Oh, except me.”

Annabella walked away. She never understood why Warrenton did such things. Maybe he was withholding his affections from her for the sole purpose of tormenting her. If she had him, she would indeed have it all. And Warrenton did not want her to have it. The burning question, though, was why not?

“Don’t walk away from me, Annabella.”

“Who do you think you are?” She wanted to know.

“I am the person who keeps you from thinking too much of yourself,” he told her.

“Is someone paying you to do that? Because they are damned-sure getting their money’s worth!”

“Someone needs to keep you in your place,” he assured her.

“Is that why you broke things off with me?”

Warrenton was taken aback.

“What do you mean?”

“When we went
out that night. You had a nice time. I had a wonderful time. The next thing I know, it’s over. Just like that. No explanation, no nothing. You sure put me in my place and made sure I didn’t think too highly of myself. It is very humbling having the carpet ripped from under your strappy, red pumps!”

“That had nothing to do with it,” he tried to convince her and himself.

“It had everything to do with it! You hate me so much that you wanted to make me suffer. Well, mission accomplished. I have never been more hurt or let down than when you dumped me to get engaged to that piece of nothing!”

Chapter
Twenty-Two

“You are such a pretty, young girl. Whatever are you doing in here, missy?”

Vidalia did not respond to Eudora’s inquiry. The girl had not spoken a word since being committed to the facility and it was obvious that she was in dire need of psychiatric help. Her family could not bear the thought of someone so young going to prison, so they went with an insanity defense and beseeched the local judge and friend of the family to commit her to the facility where her aunt resided. Vidalia was the youngest patient there and she stood out like a sore thumb, but at least she was with family and maybe she could get some much-needed help to deal with her emotional problems. Burning down someone’s house was not a matter to be taken lightly, but at least she did not hurt anyone. No one, not even Warrenton, believed that she ever intended to hurt anyone. But, she could not get off Scott-free for burning down a historical mansion. Warrenton’s family’s home had been there for centuries, yet Vidalia was able to do what General Sherman himself could not. She never spoke of the incident, not even in defense of herself. It was apparent to most of her doctor’s that Warrenton’s deception was so traumatic that it sent her into a rage and she was not criminally responsible for her actions. However, there were some who felt she was a spoiled brat, use to getting her way. They even went so far as to say she was a manipulative hussy who seduced the man in hopes of marrying him. When she realized that he would not marry such a vamp, she sought to destroy his life. In any event, Vidalia managed to sidestep prison for a milder confinement. She would have to prove that she is mentally stable if she ever hoped to get out of that place. In the meantime, Eudora enjoyed having her around, however silent she was. Eudora was resolved to spend the rest of her life there, but Vidalia had breathed new life, new hope into her. And, Hattie had suddenly expressed an interest in bringing Eudora home.

“Eudora, my time with your family is drawing to a close. I think it’s time you came home to take care of things. Annabella is grown up and out of the house. Old Hattie is getting on up there in years and Mr. Devereaux is not getting any younger. You two need to be spending your twilight years together. Now, you would not be cramping his style, so I don’t want you thinking that.
When the time comes for Vidalia to get out of this place, I hope to be wheeling two chairs – not one. This is not your home, Eudora and it’s time you realized that.”