Southern Lights: A Novel

Savannah kissed her mother goodbye again, and went home with her father. Her mother had promised to come back in two weeks. The time was going by, and Savannah was used to it here now. In some ways it felt like home, and in other ways she felt like a stranger. It was what Alexa said she had felt when she lived there, because no matter how much you love it, if you’re not born in the South, you will never really be one of them. And now Savannah was beginning to understand that too. They still talked about southerners and Yankees, and the flag of the Confederacy was embedded in their hearts forever, and flew from many homes.

She noticed that her father looked unhappy as they drove home, and she glanced at him with concern.

“You okay, Dad?” He nodded and smiled at her, but his eyes were sad. She suspected that what her mother had said the day before had affected him deeply. But Savannah didn’t blame her a bit.

When they got back to the house, Luisa was waiting for him. She was wearing a black Chanel suit and a lot of jewelry and makeup. She scolded him for being late. They were going to dinner with friends. This was his life now. For better or worse. It was the life and the woman he had chosen. The one he had truly loved, and who had loved him, was gone.

Chapter 15

It was the beginning of April, with only a month until the trial. It was still cold in New York, and it snowed the whole week after Alexa came back from her weekend with Savannah. In Charleston it was spring, and flowers were blooming everywhere. There were azaleas and wisteria vines, cherry blossoms. The garden at Thousand Oaks was resplendent and a fleet of gardeners worked on it every day.

Everything about the two cities and their lives there was in sharp contrast. In New York it was freezing cold, snowing, barren, gray, and Alexa was preparing the trial of a man who had murdered eighteen young women. The weather was as cold and dark as what she was doing.

In Charleston everything was blossoming, the weather was warm, and Turner and Savannah were falling in love. Daisy teased her about it constantly, and all the girls at school were jealous. He invited her to the senior prom. And her father allowed her to invite him to dinner at the house. Luisa wasn’t welcoming, but at least she wasn’t overtly rude to him since the Beaumonts and his father were friends.

The best part about Savannah being in Charleston, other than meeting Daisy, dating Turner Ashby, and developing a relationship with her grandmother, was that she had a chance to do things with her father that she never would have otherwise.

He went on long walks with her, showed her the places where he played as a boy, took her to the famous plantations outside the city, Drayton Hall, Magnolia, Middleton Place, and Boone Hall. They explored them together, and went for walks on the beaches near Mt. Pleasant. They spent hours talking and getting to know each other. She had a real father now, not just a cardboard figure who showed up twice a year in New York, and wouldn’t let her into his real life. And he knew for certain now, as did she, that he would never shut her out again. He wanted Savannah in his life.

He took both girls to the aquarium. He played tennis with them. He took Savannah to the country club and introduced her to everyone. And the more he did, the more Luisa felt he had betrayed her, but Tom no longer cared. Savannah’s stay in Charleston, and Luisa’s reaction to it, had driven a wedge between them that widened the gap that had been there before Savannah arrived. Tom and Luisa hardly spoke to each other anymore, and Luisa was either out, in a rage with him, or in bed with a damp cloth on her head. She just couldn’t get past it and didn’t try. She hadn’t had a single kind word, or made a single hospitable gesture toward Savannah, since she arrived. Her father apologized to her for it, but he just couldn’t make his wife behave. It was open civil war.

Her grandmother got a touch of the flu, and Savannah went over several times to keep her company and nurse her. She had read all the books her grandmother had given her, and was learning a great deal about the Civil War.

Savannah was sitting with her one afternoon on the porch, when Luisa came by unannounced. She looked furious the moment she saw Savannah there and told her to go home. Savannah started to get up. She didn’t want to cause a problem.