Contents ( 66)
- Cover
- Books by Valerie Fraser Luesse
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map of Florida
- one
- two
- three
- four
- five
- six
- seven
- eight
- nine
- ten
- eleven
- twelve
- thirteen
- fourteen
- fifteen
- sixteen
- seventeen
- eighteen
- nineteen
- twenty
- twenty-one
- twenty-two
- twenty-three
- twenty-four
- twenty-five
- twenty-six
- twenty-seven
- twenty-eight
- twenty-nine
- thirty
- thirty-one
- thirty-two
- thirty-three
- thirty-four
- thirty-five
- thirty-six
- thirty-seven
- thirty-eight
- thirty-nine
- forty
- forty-one
- forty-two
- forty-three
- forty-four
- forty-five
- forty-six
- forty-seven
- forty-eight
- forty-nine
- fifty
- fifty-one
- Epilogue
- Keep Reading for a Preview of Valerie Luesse’s Next Book!
- Prologue
- one
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Back Ads
- Back Cover
“Why do you think he’s different?” Peyton had unearthed a couple of seashells next to their blanket and was absently turning them over and over with his fingers.
“I ’magine he takes after his mama.”
“But I thought you didn’t like Grandmother Cabot.”
Aunt Gert stared out at the ocean now turning soft shades of blue and gray in the early sunset. “She’s not your daddy’s mama.”
Peyton dropped the seashells and wheeled around to face his aunt. “Ma’am?”
Aunt Gert took off her sunglasses and looked straight at him. “It’s not my place to tell you, but I’ve never been too concerned about stayin’ in my place, and I believe in bein’ truthful. Plus I think you’d be a lot less confused about everything if you knew what’s what. So here we go. Your granddaddy didn’t start off in Savannah. He started off in Louisiana. That’s where he was born and raised and where he met his first wife, Julia Guidry. They were both very young when they married, and he was farmin’ cotton. Julia was a dark-haired beauty and a very lovin’ girl who was crazy about your granddaddy. The two of ’em didn’t have much, but they were happy together.”
Aunt Gert dug her feet deeper into the sand. “Poor Julia had two miscarriages before she gave birth to your daddy, and then she died in a car accident when Marshall was two. A happy life just wasn’t meant to be for that girl, bless her heart. Didn’t you ever wonder why there’s five years between your daddy and your Uncle Julian, but all the other Cabots are just a year or so apart? Or do you not know about the birds and the bees?”
“Aunt Gert!” Peyton covered his face with his hands, embarrassed to death to be discussing the facts of life with his aunt.
Aunt Gert, in turn, laughed till she couldn’t catch her breath. “I’m sorry, honey! I didn’t mean to shock you. But you do know, don’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am! But I swear if we don’t get offa this subject, I’m gonna go drown myself in the ocean.”
“Oh, don’t kill yourself, honey. You’ll miss the sunset. Anyway—”
“Now, wait a minute before you move on. You said Granddaddy Cabot was married before, but nobody’s ever talked about another wife. There’s no pictures of her. Daddy calls Grandmother Cabot ‘Mama.’ I don’t get it.”
“Alright. I’ll tell it to you the way Doxie explained it to me.”
“What’s Granddaddy’s cook got to do with all this?”
“Doxie’s worked for him since he was a young man. And she knows plenty. Those uppity Cabots just don’t have sense enough to ask her. I used to slip off to the servants’ quarters to escape the family during those heinous picnics, and Doxie and me would have us a glass o’ bourbon and a talk.”
“You said Granddaddy Cabot started out in Louisiana—was he farming, just like in Georgia?”
“Not quite. Back then, he was on a little-bitty family farm. But rumors got to goin’ around about oil bein’ buried under that prairie land, so he decided to drill. And he struck oil.”