Southern Lights: A Novel

“Get her out of it immediately,” Luisa said with her eyes closed. “That room is for important people who come to visit us, not a child. Put her in one of the rooms upstairs. That’s where I want her.” She said all of it with her eyes closed, and moving no part of her but her mouth. The room she was talking about was a maid’s room in the attic, and Tom seethed inwardly at what she’d said, but wasn’t surprised. Luisa had declared war on him and Savannah on the phone that morning.

“She’ll stay in the Blue Room,” he said firmly. “Where’s Daisy?”

“Asleep.” He glanced at his watch. It was nine-thirty.

“At this hour? What did you do? Drug her? She doesn’t go to bed till ten.”

“She was tired,” Luisa said, and finally opened her eyes, and looked at him, but made no move to get up.

“What did you tell her?” he asked, his own jaw tensing now. And he knew that this was just the beginning. He was well aware of what Luisa was capable of. Her behavior was appalling, whenever she chose. He felt sorry for Savannah. He was used to Luisa’s vendettas and venomous ways. Savannah surely wasn’t, and had no idea what she was in for. He had brought her here anyway, he wanted her here, to keep her safe from the dangers she was facing in New York. He was going to do everything he could to protect her, as best he could. But Luisa was a loose cannon, and he knew it.

“About what?” Luisa stared at him blankly, in response to his question about what she had told Daisy.

“You know what I’m asking you. What did you tell Daisy about Savannah?” He studied his wife. She was as blond as Savannah and Alexa, but in her case it wasn’t real and came out of a bottle. She wore her hair in the same flip to her shoulders she had worn since she was sixteen, and went to the hairdresser three times a week to maintain it, with a staggering amount of hairspray. She was impeccably groomed, fussy in her style of dress, wore too much makeup for his taste, and a lot of jewelry, some of which she had inherited from her mother, and the rest he and her last husband had paid for.

“I told her you had a youthful indiscretion, and Savannah was the result, and we’ve never wanted to tell her.” He looked horrified at the suggestion that Savannah was an illegitimate daughter who had suddenly turned up, if that was what she had told Daisy.

“Did you say I was married to her mother?”

“I said that we didn’t need to talk about it, and preferred not to, and Savannah will be staying for as short a time as possible, because her mother is in trouble.”

“For God’s sake, Luisa, you make it sound like her mother is in rehab, or jail.” He was appalled, but not surprised.

“Daisy is too young to know that criminals are threatening Savannah’s life. It would traumatize her forever.” So would the lies her mother told her, Tom knew only too well. But it was hard to stop them, or the spin she put on every story, in her favor. Luisa was the worst of what people said about southern women, that they were hypocritical and dishonest and covered it with false sweetness and charm. There were lots of other southerners, men and women, who didn’t use good manners as a cover-up for lies and were sincere. Luisa was not one of them, and always had an ulterior motive, a plot, or a plan. Her plan now was to make Savannah’s life as miserable as possible, and Tom’s.

“I want you to come and say hello to Savannah,” he repeated with an unfamiliarly hard tone in his voice. Luisa didn’t like it at all. She sat up on the bed, swung her legs down, and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

“Don’t try to drag me into this. I don’t want her here.”

“That’s clear. But she is here, for extremely important reasons. All I want is for you to be polite.”

“I’ll be civil to her when I see her. Don’t expect more from me than that.” He nodded and left the room. It was obvious that Luisa was not going to meet Savannah that night. He gave up the fight, and went back to her room by himself. He wanted to stop and see Daisy, but he went back to Savannah first.

“Luisa isn’t feeling well, she’s in bed,” he said simply, and Savannah saw through it, but didn’t comment. She was relieved herself not to meet her that night. “Do you want something to eat?”

“No, I’m fine, Daddy. Thank you. I’m not hungry, I’ll just unpack.” He nodded and went to his study, to look at his mail. He was so annoyed at Luisa that he decided not to visit Daisy after all. He was not in a good mood, and decided to sleep in his study that night. He had no desire whatsoever to spend the night fighting with his wife. There was time enough for that tomorrow, and for the next three months until after the trial. He closed his door softly, and in her own room, Savannah did the same.