Waking Up in Charleston (23 page)

“I’m giving you permission to go,” Joanna said. “So you’re not playing hooky.”

“And Nadine will wait for the kids at your place after school. She’ll stay with them till we get back. Now, come on.” He took her purse from Joanna, then guided her toward the door.

Amanda balked. “Back? From where?”

Caleb regarded her impatiently. “Just for once, could you trust me and not ask so many questions?”

“Something tells me that when you’re being so mysterious, it is exactly the time I ought to be asking every
question that pops into my head,” she said, but she followed him to the car.

“Well, please refrain, or it’s going to be a long trip.”

Amanda stared at him. He wasn’t making a lick of sense. “Trip?” she demanded. “What on earth are you talking about, Caleb? I can’t go on a trip.”

“Get in the car, Amanda,” he coaxed, then closed the door behind her. “The trip is just overnight. We’ll be back in time for work in the morning. I have a change of clothes for you in the trunk.”

“Well, you and Nadine just thought of everything, didn’t you?” she said nastily. “In case you haven’t caught on yet, I don’t appreciate other people trying to run my life.”

“Really? I would never have guessed that about you,” he said, amusement lurking in his eyes.

“Oh, go to hell,” she said, then immediately apologized.

He laughed. “I’ve been told worse things in my life.”

“Yes, I imagine you have, being the know-it-all control freak that you are.”

He was about to turn the key in the ignition, but he paused and faced her. “Do I need to kiss you to shut you up?” he inquired.

Amanda decided that would be a very bad idea. Given the level of agitation she was feeling at the moment, a kiss would either go very badly…or way too well. Which raised an interesting point, she realized suddenly.

“Are you taking me away to…” Her voice faltered.

“To what?” he asked, then chuckled at her expression. “No, I am not taking you away to seduce you,
Amanda, though if you were to show the slightest inclination in that direction, I could be persuaded.”

She frowned at him. “Sometimes I wish you weren’t such a blasted saint.”

He chuckled. “Me, too, darlin’. Me, too. Maybe we should get back to that topic another time, though.”

“When?” The word popped out of her mouth before she could stop it. She blushed furiously. “Pretend you didn’t hear that.”

“Sorry. Impossible,” he said. “I’ll add that to the list of topics for later discussion.”

Amanda sighed. “Yes, I imagine you will.”

That was the trouble with Caleb. He never forgot anything, least of all the things she most wanted him to forget.

Since Caleb obviously didn’t intend to be any more forthcoming about their destination, Amanda tried to force herself to sit back and relax. When she realized they were heading into Savannah, she turned and regarded him with renewed curiosity.

“Why didn’t you just tell me we were going to Savannah?” she asked. “It’s one of my favorite cities. Daddy used to bring me here all the time when I was a little girl.”

Caleb nodded. “I think he mentioned something about that.” He glanced at a slip of paper, then turned into the historic part of the city.

The squares around which the older houses had been built were well tended and shaded by huge old trees. She recognized the famed Mrs. Wilkes’s boardinghouse, where she and Max had once stood in line to eat a traditional Southern lunch family-style with strangers from all over the country.

Then Caleb turned onto a quiet block where there were no tourists strolling along. He pulled to the curb in front of a town house with wide brick steps and wrought-iron trim. The shutters and front door had been painted a shiny black, and a brass knocker was in the shape of a lion’s head. Amanda couldn’t seem to pull her eyes away from that knocker. It was just like the one on the front door at Willow Bend.

She turned slowly to face Caleb. “Why are we here? Who lives here?”

“You’ll know soon enough,” he said, cutting the engine, then getting out of the car before she could ask more questions.

When he opened her door, she stayed right where she was, her heart thumping unsteadily. She lifted her gaze to meet his. “Caleb, tell me, please.”

Just then the front door of the town house opened and a tall, thin woman with auburn hair stood at the top of the steps. The sun caught her hair and turned the color to fire. She was dressed impeccably in a knit suit, designer shoes and discreet but unmistakably expensive jewelry. Amanda’s gaze was drawn to her perfectly manicured hands…and to the simple platinum-and-diamond band on her ring finger. She’d seen one picture of her mother in all these years, her wedding picture. A band just like that had been plainly visible.

Amanda tore her gaze away from the ring to study the classically elegant woman waiting in the doorway. For all of her care with her appearance, there was fear and uncertainty in the woman’s eyes. Something told Amanda that anxiety wasn’t part of her normal nature.

“Who is she?” she asked Caleb, hardly daring to be
lieve what her head was telling her. She needed his confirmation.

His lips curved ever so slightly. “Unless I’ve turned up at the wrong place, that is Margaret Maxwell, your mother,” he said quietly, then searched her face. “Would you like to go and meet her?”

Amanda sat frozen right where she was. “I’m not sure I can stand up,” she whispered. “I wasn’t expecting this. How did you talk my father into telling you where she was?”

“He loves you,” Caleb said simply. He gave her an encouraging smile. “Do you really want to keep her waiting?”

A flash of anger streaked through Amanda. “Why shouldn’t I?” she asked bitterly. “She kept me waiting for more than thirty years. She and my father.”

Caleb regarded her with sympathy. “Then why waste another minute?”

Amanda noted that her mother’s expression had wilted a bit when Amanda didn’t immediately emerge from the car. She realized then that her mother really was as terrified about this meeting as Amanda was. Somehow that made it better. Not okay, but better. Perhaps her mother had a conscience, after all.

Amanda took Caleb’s hand and got out of the car, then slowly crossed the sidewalk and climbed the steps. At the top, she looked into eyes as blue as her own. Right now they were just as tear-filled as hers, too.

“Amanda?” her mother said softly, her voice filled with a mix of wonder and uneasiness.

Amanda couldn’t speak, so she merely nodded.

For an instant, she thought her mother was going to
embrace her, but apparently she thought better of it, because she stepped back, transforming herself into the gracious Southern hostess she no doubt was. “Come in, please.” Her gaze sought out Caleb, who’d retreated to the sidewalk by the car. “Reverend Webb, aren’t you going to join us?”

Amanda turned and looked at him in dismay. “Caleb?”

He shook his head. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours. I think you two need time alone to catch up.”

He said it as if they’d been apart weeks or months, rather than a lifetime. Amanda wanted to bolt down the steps after him. Instead, the Maxwell pride kicked in and she stood her ground. She faced her mother with her chin held high.

“Caleb’s right,” she said. “We do have a lot to talk about. You can start with why you abandoned me and allowed me to grow up believing you were dead.”

She brushed past her mother and went inside, instinctively finding her way into the formal living room, where she sank onto a chair before her knees gave way.

Her mother was slow to follow, which was just as well. Amanda wanted every second she could grab to restore her composure. And to frame the thousand and one questions she’d spent a lifetime wishing she could ask of the woman who’d given birth to her.

C
aleb stood on the sidewalk in front of Margaret Maxwell’s house for several minutes after the two women had gone inside. He couldn’t seem to tear himself away. A part of him worried about Amanda and wanted to stay close in case she needed him. Another part wanted to be privy to what was going on inside.

Since the latter smacked of a kind of nosiness he disliked in others, he forced himself to get behind the wheel of the car and drive away. He intended to go to the hotel where Max had made reservations for him and Amanda, check in, kill a couple of hours and then go back.

Just as he was about to drive away, his cell phone rang. He knew even without checking the caller ID that it would be Max.

“What’s going on down there?” Max demanded without preamble. “Have they met yet?”

“They’re inside Margaret’s house right now talking,” Caleb told him.

“Where are you?”

“On my way to the hotel.”

“What? Why aren’t you with them?” Max demanded. “Those two shouldn’t be left alone.”

“They’re not going to tear each other’s hair out, Max. You just want me to be able to give you a play-by-play of what they say,” Caleb accused.

“Well, of course I do. Dammit, I knew I should have taken Amanda down there myself.”

“I thought you told me Margaret refused to see you,” Caleb reminded him.

“I didn’t have to listen to her,” Max grumbled.

Caleb grinned. “To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised you did.”

Max fell silent, then admitted, “I figured me being there would just stir things up. Better to let them have this time alone to work things out, if they can.”

“She’s still a beautiful woman, your Margaret,” Caleb said, knowing Max wanted to ask. “And she seems very gracious.”

Max sighed. “She’s aged better than I have. I’ve seen pictures from time to time. Don’t know why she had to go and turn her hair red, though. Brown was the color God gave her, just like Amanda’s. She should have kept it.”

Caleb laughed. “Women like a dramatic change from time to time. Hair color seems to be the thing they choose.”

“I suppose. I imagine red suits her better, anyway. She was a real spitfire once upon a time.”

That image didn’t quite fit with the elegant woman Caleb had just met. “Tell me more about her, Max.”

“Margaret was unpredictable and full of life back then,” he said, sounding nostalgic. “She was always ready to try something new.” He chuckled. “Even in my thirties, I couldn’t keep up with her. I suppose I should
have seen right off we were a bad match, but I saw potential in her. Not sure she ever saw it in herself, though.”

Caleb thought of her classy appearance now and tried to reconcile that with the independent spirit who’d walked out on a husband and baby. “I’d say she figured it out, Max. Based on appearances alone, she seems to have changed, become the woman you imagined she would.”

“You don’t suppose she’s mellowed enough to consider coming back here for a visit?” Max asked wistfully. “I’d like to see her one more time.”

“You’re the one who spoke to her,” Caleb said. “What do you think?”

“That she’d still like to serve up my head on a platter,” Max replied. “Don’t know why that is, though. I gave that woman everything she ever asked for and then some. It was her idea to leave here with someone else. I didn’t kick her out.”

“Maybe she regrets what she did in leaving you and her child, but has too much pride to admit it,” Caleb suggested. “You ought to be able to understand that.”

“I do,” Max said. “I surely do. You call me later, okay? I want to hear how things went.”

“I’ll call when I can,” Caleb promised.

“And make sure you and Amanda use
both
those rooms I reserved for you. I don’t want any monkey business on my dime,” Max said.

“You don’t get to control everything, Max,” Caleb chided. “And you gave up any right to tell Amanda what to do years ago.”

“Which is why I’m telling you,” Max said. “Besides,
misbehaving shouldn’t even be on your mind, Reverend.”

Caleb laughed. “No, but where your daughter’s concerned, I don’t always use good sense. Now, let me go. I’m turning into the hotel. I’ll speak to you later, Max. And stop worrying.”

“I’m not worried. I know you’ll do the right thing.”

“I wasn’t talking about me. I meant you don’t need to worry about how things are going with Amanda and her mother. It may take some time, but they’ll work this out. At least they’ll find some common ground.”

Max sighed heavily. “I hope you’re right about that. Amanda’s got my stubbornness and Margaret’s got her own share. They could be butting heads, even as we speak.”

“No question about it,” Caleb agreed. “But like I said, they’ll work it out in time, the same way you and Amanda have.”

Though he did his best to sound confident for Max’s sake, Caleb hoped he was right about that. Amanda and her mother didn’t have the history she shared with Max. Despite the bad times, there were at least some good for those two to build on. Not so with her mother.

He hoped Amanda would thank him for bringing her here, rather than taking his head off for interfering. Right now, he’d have to say it was probably a toss-up.

“Would you care for some tea?” Amanda’s mother asked politely.

Amanda wanted to shout that she wasn’t there for tea or to exchange pleasantries. She was there for explanations and apologies. But years of training in social
graces—lessons from Jessie that this woman should have been the one to teach—kept her silent. She nodded, then forced herself to say, “Yes, thank you.”

“I’ll be right back, then.”

Once her mother had left the room, Amanda looked around. To her astonishment there was a picture of her father on an antique table beside the chintz-covered sofa. And next to it in a tiny frame was a baby picture, one of those they took in the hospital with the baby’s face still all scrunched up and red. Amanda recognized this one because Max had one exactly like it in his wallet, or at least he had while she was growing up. He’d always told her it reminded him of the best day of his life. Even as she’d grown and he’d added her latest school pictures, that baby picture had stayed in his wallet.

Seeing the same tiny photo here brought salty tears to her eyes. She swiped at them angrily, not wanting her heart to soften even a little bit toward the woman who’d callously walked away from her. If she’d mattered so little to her mother, why had she kept that picture?

When her mother returned, she set a silver tray on the table, then poured them each a cup of tea. She handed a cup to Amanda. “If it were a few hours later, we could have a drink. Something tells me we both could use one.”

Amanda fought a smile as she accepted the tea. A sense of humor wasn’t something she’d expected, either. Truthfully, she didn’t know what she’d expected. An ogre, perhaps. Someone so flighty and disreputable that Amanda would be glad to have been left behind.
The woman seated across from her was neither of those. She was studying Amanda with intelligent eyes, regarding her with undisguised curiosity.

“You’re as lovely as I imagined,” she told Amanda, a catch in her voice.

“It’s nice to know you gave me at least a moment’s thought in all these years,” Amanda retorted.

Her mother blinked at the heat in her voice, then nodded. “There it is,” she said, amusement lurking in her voice. “Your father’s wit and temper. I suspected you’d have that, too.”

“I wish I’d had half a chance to consider what you were like or what traits I might have inherited from you,” Amanda said. “I thought you were dead. All I had were the stories he told me about you.”

“Your father thought it best,” Margaret said. “How could I argue when I was the one walking away? He had to handle it in a way he could live with.”

“Obviously it didn’t matter to you as long as you got your freedom,” Amanda said.

Her mother winced, but she didn’t shy away from the barb. “Something like that.”

“Why?” Amanda asked. “Why did you have to leave at all? Daddy obviously adored you. He’s never even looked at another woman.”

“At twenty-five, all that devotion was smothering me,” her mother said candidly. “I didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t have any idea how to break free of it except to run. And then someone daring and adventurous came along who wanted to take me with him.”

“What about taking a vacation, instead?” Amanda snapped. “That’s what most people do when they need
a break. They don’t leave forever with the first interesting man who wanders by.”

“I thought ‘forever’ was my only option, especially with you to consider. I couldn’t keep walking in and out of your life.”

Amanda still couldn’t grasp it. “Didn’t you love my father at all, at least in the beginning?”

“Of course I did. William Maxwell was larger than life. He was only ten years older than I and already a powerful force in Charleston. If I asked for something, if I even mentioned something, he bought it for me. He was generous and attentive, the ideal husband in so many ways.”

“And yet you left.”

“I shouldn’t have married so young. I wanted to experience more of the world. It was my own fault, but you know how persuasive your father can be. He convinced me I would have all the excitement I wanted, that we’d go everywhere and do everything. But the reality was something less than that. Business always took precedence. He wanted me at his beck and call, so I couldn’t find an interest of my own that might have fulfilled me.”

Something in her words resonated with Amanda more than she wanted to admit. Her adoring father had smothered her, too. He’d wanted only the best for her, and sometimes that had meant not allowing her to stretch her wings and make her own mistakes. He’d covered his obsession with business by making Amanda part of it.

She wondered if he’d ever realized the mistakes
he
was making, first with her mother and then with her.
Perhaps if he’d been a different kind of man, her mother would have stayed. Perhaps if Amanda had been permitted smaller mistakes, she wouldn’t have seized on Bobby with such fervor. Not that Bobby was a mistake, except in her father’s eyes, she thought staunchly.

“Have you been in Savannah all this time?” Amanda asked her.

“No. When I left, I knew I had to go far away, or it would be too easy to go back again the minute I got scared or the relationship I was in burned itself out. I’m not sure how your father would have explained it, but I knew he’d take me back despite whatever humiliation my departure caused him. I couldn’t do that to him, so I traveled for many years. I lived in London for a time, and in Paris. I spent several years in New York and eventually two years in Atlanta. That’s when I realized how much I missed the South. Going back to Charleston was out of the question, so I came here.”

She gave Amanda a weary smile. “It was a risk and I knew it. If anyone from Charleston had come here and recognized me, it would have been the end of the charade. I think after all that time maybe a part of me wanted to be exposed. It would have allowed me to come back to Charleston at last. I would have been disgraced, of course, but I think I could have lived with that if it hadn’t meant hurting your father again. I’d put him through enough.”

“Very noble,” Amanda said sarcastically. “Of course, you gave no consideration to what any of these choices might do to me.”

“You’re wrong,” her mother said. “Max was the better parent to raise you. I recognized that. Even if he
hadn’t insisted on it, I would have left you in his care. You needed a stability that I wasn’t capable of giving you back then.”

“And later?”

Her mother’s eyes filled with tears. “Later, it was too late. There was no turning back. I knew your father wouldn’t permit me to be anywhere near you. That was our agreement and I knew he’d never change it. I’m sure you’ve seen his stubbornness and pride firsthand.”

“You could have fought him,” Amanda said. “Wasn’t I worth fighting for?”

Her mother’s smile turned sad. “You were worth everything. That’s why you deserved the life only he could give you.”

“Why didn’t you just divorce him? Why this huge charade about dying? How much freedom could you ever have, really, as long as you were tied to him?”

“I suppose a part of me didn’t want to cut the tie. Maybe I saw it as a safety net, that if everything fell apart, I could go back. Perhaps if I’d met someone else, someone to take seriously, I would have pursued a divorce on some island, but there was never a need for that. It wasn’t about men, Amanda, though I’m sure that’s what your father thought since I left with someone. It was about finding me, figuring out what I was capable of, learning to stand on my own two feet.”

“With his money to back you,” Amanda said with scorn.

“At first, yes,” Margaret admitted. “But I found my own way in time. I’ve worked, had a few accomplishments of my own. I’ll tell you about them sometime, when you’re ready.”

The offer hung in the air as the doorbell rang, startling them both. Her mother looked as if she wanted to ignore it, but she rose and went to answer. When she returned, Caleb was with her.

“Would you like me to leave and come back later?” he asked, his gaze on Amanda.

She shook her head. As brief as the visit had been, she wasn’t sure she could bear another minute of it. “No, I’m ready to go.”

Her mother nodded, her expression resigned. “Will you come again?”

“I’m not sure,” Amanda said. “I am glad you’re alive, but I don’t know yet if I’m ready to have you be a part of my life.”

“I know I’ll need to earn that right,” her mother said.

“Will you bother trying?” Amanda asked, aware that her mother had never acknowledged any desire to fight for a relationship in the past.

“Of course I’ll try. I want to get to know the woman you’ve become, but it will have to be here,” she said. “My coming to Charleston is not an option, for all those reasons I was giving you when Reverend Webb returned.”

Amanda studied her intently. “Do you know Daddy’s sick?”

Immediate alarm flared in her mother’s eyes. Amanda thought it was genuine.

“Sick? What’s wrong with him? Max was always one of the strongest men I knew. And he sounded fine when we spoke on the phone the other day.”