Southern Lights (20 page)

Savannah called her father just before they left the room and went downstairs to pay the bill. She was relieved that her mother would be coming back soon. She knew that once the trial started in May that wouldn’t be possible, but at least for March and April, Alexa was going to try and come down every couple of weeks, or more often if she could. She had promised, and she always kept her word.

By the time Alexa finished paying the bill, Tom walked into the lobby. He had come from the club and was wearing tennis shorts, and Alexa averted her eyes. She didn’t want to see how handsome he was, or how good his legs were. It was no longer her problem, but she already knew that something about him would always stir feelings inside her. But it was nothing more than that.

“I’ll bet you two had a great weekend,” he said, smiling broadly at them, and then his face clouded just a little. “I hear you ran into Luisa and Daisy at church.” His wife had nearly taken off his head about that, as though he had planned it. Luisa had told him that he should have warned Savannah not to go anywhere near their church. He had commented acidly on her warm Christian spirit, and could only imagine how unpleasant she must have been to Alexa. Instead of being remorseful, or feeling sorry for her, Luisa seemed to have a need to punish her further and grind her into dust. He looked at Alexa now as though to apologize for his wife.

“It was fine,” Alexa said brusquely, and then turned her attention to Savannah to say goodbye. They were both fighting back tears when Alexa got into the cab for the ride to the airport. Savannah stood on the sidewalk and waved until her mother disappeared, and then she got in her father’s car and they drove to Mt. Pleasant. It felt weird to her sometimes—she had a father suddenly, and she wasn’t used to it at all. She told him about the weekend and all the things they’d done.

She unpacked her bag when they got home, and the new things her mother had bought her. Daisy bounced into the room and chatted with her. Julianne and two other girls called her, and Travis and Scarlette came to dinner. Scarlette brought Savannah some magazines, and Travis a funny old photograph he had of her when she was three. By the time Alexa got off the plane in New York, Savannah had settled back into her new routine, and in an odd way, it almost felt like home.

Daisy had commented to Savannah that night that her mom was really pretty and seemed nice, and apologized to her that her own mother was so mean.

“I think my mom is jealous of your mom,” Daisy said with the wisdom of young children.

“Maybe,” Savannah conceded, and then they both burst out laughing as they both said at the same time, “Bless her heart.”

Chapter 12

On her first day back after her weekend in Charleston, Alexa was busy with endless cops and investigators. Everything was coming together in the case, and she had dumped enough discovery on Judy Dunning to drown her. There was so much forensic evidence, and so many reports to go through, that the public defender was totally overwhelmed. Alexa took a break at noon, which was rare for her these days, and went to the family court to see her mother and have lunch with her in chambers. Alexa seemed like she was in a good mood.

“So how was it?” her mother asked her. They were each eating a salad from the deli across the street.

“It was better than I feared,” Alexa said to her. “Savannah was in great shape. And we ran into Luisa coming out of church, and she was a total bitch. But other than that, it was great. Charleston is as pretty as ever, and Savannah and I had a wonderful time together. I ran into an old friend of mine there, who defected when Tom divorced me, and that was creepy. But on the whole it was pretty good.”

“I told you. This is interesting for her, and it’s good for her to discover the other side of her family. She’s a smart girl. She’ll pick and choose. No one’s going to pull the wool over her eyes. It sounds like Tom bought himself a one-way ticket to hell with Luisa. Why does he stay with her?”

“Probably for the same reason he went back to her,” Alexa said curtly. “No guts. When he left me, he did what his mother and Luisa told him to do, and now she has him by the throat.” Or worse.

“How does he look?” Muriel asked with interest, and her daughter laughed. She was in good spirits. It had done her a world of good to see Savannah.

“Handsome and weak. I guess I never noticed. He’s still the best-looking man on the planet, but I know what he’s about now, and who he is. I guess I’ll always think he’s gorgeous, but thank God I’m not in love with him anymore. That’s something at least.” She sounded freer and less angry than Muriel had heard her sound in years. She wasn’t as tense, despite the pressures of the Quentin case. She’d been working closely with the FBI, and now that they weren’t threatening to take her case away every five minutes, she was enjoying working with them. There were no female agents on the case, and she didn’t mind being the only woman in a world of men. She liked it. And the FBI agents were interesting to work with.

While her mother was back at work, Savannah was busy at school in Charleston. She had added a Chinese class to her AP French, and was having fun trying to learn the language. She didn’t need it for credit, so there was no pressure on her. And she was starting to make a lot of friends in school. She and Julianne met for lunch almost every day.

She went to all the volleyball and soccer games, and rooted for their teams. They let her join the swimming team because someone had dropped out with a serious problem with her ears.

And the weekend after her mother had been there, the captain of the soccer team asked Savannah out on a date. Julianne nearly fainted when she heard. He had just broken up with the prettiest girl in school.

“Are you going to go out with him?” Julianne asked breathlessly when Savannah confided in her.

“I might. I have nothing else to do.” She sounded very cool.

He took her to a movie on Friday night, and they stopped at a coffee shop afterward. His name was Turner Ashby, a descendant of the general of the same name, he informed her over burgers and shakes.

“It seems like everyone in town is related to a general,” Savannah commented. She was wearing her mother’s pink sweater and jeans, with high heels. She looked different from the girls in Charleston when she got dressed up. She had the sophistication of New York and was wearing just enough makeup but not too much. He looked crazy about her.

“That’s a big deal around here,” he explained.

“I know. My grandmother is the president general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She’s the president general because she’s related to a general too.” Savannah grinned. She wasn’t making fun of them, but she did think it was funny. He was a handsome boy with dark hair and green eyes, the oldest of four boys. “Where do you think you’ll go to college?” she asked with genuine interest. She noticed that most of the people she talked to about it had applied to southern schools.

“Georgia Tech, or maybe SMU in Texas. I applied to Duke and UVA, but I don’t think my scores are good enough to get in. What about you?”

“I’d really like to go to Princeton. It’s close to home, which would be nice, and I liked the school. I liked Brown too. I think Harvard would be too serious, and I probably won’t get in either. I liked Stanford, but my mom doesn’t want me that far away.” She went down her list.

“That’s some list of fancy Ivy League schools you applied to,” he said, looking impressed. She was smart but not stuck up, and the prettiest girl he’d ever seen.

He had her back at her house very respectfully at ten-thirty, and she had enjoyed him and the movie, and said she’d see him around school.

Julianne called her just after dawn the next morning to ask how it had gone.

“It was fun,” Savannah said, and giggled, sounding younger than her age, and more like Daisy.

“That’s it? You went out with the hottest guy in school and ‘it was fun’? Did he kiss you?” Julianne wanted all the details. She had learned that from her mother. Gossip was their stock-in-trade.

“Of course not. We don’t even know each other. Besides, it would be dumb to get involved with anyone now. We’re all leaving for college, and I’m only here for a few months.” She was practical about it. She wasn’t looking for romance, just friends, which made her even more appealing. She didn’t have the desperation of some of the girls in school who were always looking for boyfriends.

“There’s nothing dumb about going out with Turner Ashby. Did you know his father has oil rigs all over Biloxi? My mama says he’s one of the richest men in the state.
And,”
she said for emphasis, “he’s cute. And the captain of the soccer team. What else do you need?” Savannah was well aware that playing soccer wouldn’t get him far in life, it took more than that. And she didn’t care about his father’s oil wells. “Did he ask you out again?”

“No. Don’t be silly. I just went out with him last night.” She was totally relaxed about it.

“He will. Guys always like girls like you who don’t give a damn about them.”

“I didn’t say that. I liked him. I’m just not going nuts about it, like you,” she teased.

“I bet he asks you out next weekend,” Julianne said, sounding moonstruck and hopeful.

“I hope not. I think my mom’s coming. She said she’d try, but she may not make it till the following weekend.”

Julianne made a disgusted sound. “Who would you rather go out with? Turner Ashby or your mother?”

Savannah answered without an instant’s hesitation. “My mother.”

“You’re sick.” Julianne promised to check in with her again later that day to see if Turner had called her yet.

Daisy was the next member of the interrogation team.

“Who was that boy who picked you up last night?” she asked casually over pancakes in the kitchen.

“Just a boy from school.”

“That’s all?” Daisy asked, looking disappointed. “Is he in love with you?”

“No,” Savannah said, smiling. “He hardly knows me.”

“Are you in love with him?”

“No. I don’t know him either,” she said, her feet firmly on the ground.

“Then why’d you go out with him if you’re not in love with him?” Daisy asked, looking disgusted.

“Because we wanted to eat dinner and see a movie, and I figured I might as well do it with him, since he asked.” Daisy nodded at the logic of what she said, but found it pathetically unromantic. Their father walked in, in his tennis clothes, while they were talking.

“Was that one of the Ashby boys I saw you leaving the house with last night?” he asked with equal interest. Clearly, her dating life was the hot topic in town.

“Yes.”

“Nice kid?”

“I think so. He seemed like it,” Savannah conceded.

“I play tennis with his father. They’ve had some hard times. His wife died last year. A drunk driver hit her on Highway 526, five miles from home. It must be hard on the kids.”

“He didn’t say anything about it. We just talked about school.” Tom nodded, and told her that Henry was coming in from New Orleans that afternoon.

“He’s anxious to see you. He’ll be home for dinner tonight. Travis and Scarlette are coming over too. The whole family will be together,” he said, looking happy, as Luisa walked into the kitchen and ignored him. She said she was going to the country club for a spa day that was just for women. Tom said he was picking Henry up at the airport, and Luisa said she’d be home in the late afternoon. She left the house five minutes later, and when they were alone again, Savannah offered to take Daisy to the aquarium, which sounded like fun to both of them. It was called the South Carolina Aquarium, and was said to be very good.

She and Daisy left the house at eleven o’clock, walked all over the aquarium, and had lunch there, and came back at three in the afternoon. Tallulah said their father had just left to pick up Henry, so they played Go Fish and War and Hearts and Gin Rummy, and shortly after five o’clock Tom and Henry walked in. Daisy flew down the stairs to greet her brother. He was a year younger than Travis and was a handsome young man with a powerful athletic build. He had played football in college and instead of UVA had gone to Duke. Savannah knew that he had been an art history major and eventually wanted to teach. He wasn’t interested in business like his older brother or his father, and he was working in an important art gallery in New Orleans, and as an intern at a museum. He was interested in curating too.

After Henry had lavishly hugged his younger sister, he looked up the stairs and saw Savannah smiling at him. She looked no different than she had as a little girl, as Travis had already told her, just bigger.

“I am sooooo happy to see you,” Henry said softly, as he came up the stairs to where she stood and folded her into a bear hug. “I am so glad you’re here. Travis and Daisy already told me all about you. I came home this weekend just to see you.” And the way he said it, she believed him. They walked back down the stairs and into the living room. Fortunately, Luisa hadn’t come home yet, or she would have objected to his making a fuss over Savannah. But Henry didn’t care. He had never danced to his mother’s tune.

They sat down and talked for a while, and he asked pertinent questions, what she liked, what she did, what her favorite music was, her favorite books and movies, the names of her friends. He wanted to know all about her. And his eyes grew sad when he asked about her mother.

“I didn’t like to write when I was a kid, so I didn’t. But I always thought about her, and about you. Your mom did something very special for me when she was married to our daddy,” he said solemnly, as though he was about to share an important secret. “I’m dyslexic, and your mama tutored me for all those years. I hated the tutor I had, so she did it. I think she took classes to learn how to do it. Anyway, thanks to her, I got through school. I never forgot it. She was the kindest, most patient woman I have ever known, the spirit of compassion and love.” Tom had been standing in the doorway and heard Henry say it, and walked away with a pained expression. Neither Henry nor Savannah had seen him there, and then he disappeared.

“She never told me,” Savannah said honestly. “That’s pretty good if you got into Duke.”