Page 79 of The Night Before (Savannah 1)

“I agree.” Hannah’s blue eyes darkened a shade, and Caitlyn held her tongue. There had been rumors about Josh and Hannah, but there had been rumors about Josh with just about any female within ninety miles. So Caitlyn had become inured, she supposed. His affairs had become more embarrassing than painful. But to think that her own sister had . . . “Josh loved himself too much to end it.”

“Must we speculate?” Berneda asked, running a shaky hand over her lips. She looked pale and shrunken on the chaise.

“Of course not, Mom. Why don’t you go upstairs and rest?” Caitlyn suggested.

“So you all can talk about me?”

“We won’t.”

“Of course we will,” Hannah said. She slid out of the chair, her legs appearing longer than they were because of her short denim skirt and boots with five-inch heels. “That’s what this family does best. Gossips. About each other.” Hannah had never been afraid to speak her mind. The baby of the clan, she’d been coddled and spoiled and thought it was her God-given right to blurt out whatever she thought. “I need a drink.” She walked through the foyer to the dining room where an antique sideboard had been converted into a wet bar. “Anyone else?” she called, her voice echoing against the coved ceiling.

“Spoiled brat,” Ian said under his breath, but loud enough that everyone in the room caught it.

“This is all so much to take in.” Berneda wrung her hands nervously.

“You’ve upset her,” Troy accused Amanda.

“Oh, I know, I shouldn’t have come here, but I thought it would be best if I came over in person and she saw that I was all right. Isn’t that better than catching a sound bite on the eleven o’clock news?” Amanda glanced at Berneda. “Mom, I’m okay, really,” she said, though she didn’t sound as if she’d convinced herself. “Everything turned out all right. Except for the TR Daddy gave me. It’s totaled.”

Hannah strolled back to the family room and was sipping from a short glass.

“All this in one week,” Berneda said, her voice shaking as she reached for Amanda’s hand. “It’s a little much. First Josh and now you. I swear sometimes I do believe this family is cursed.”

“Cursed? Oh, God, Mom. Now you’re starting to sound like her,” Hannah said as she threw a pointed look at Lucille. “Seen any ghosts lately?”

“Hannah!” Berneda responded.

“I don’t see ’em, I only hear ’em,” Lucille said in a voice so cold it sent a shiver down Caitlyn’s spine.

“What about you?” Hannah twirled on the heel of her boot to stare at Caitlyn. “I thought you heard ghosts, too.”

“That’s enough!” Berneda was shaking, and Doc Fellers stepped between Hannah and her mother. “Let’s all try to calm down. I’ve given your mother a tranquilizer.”

“How thoughtful,” Hannah said with a sneer. “I think I’ll have one myself.” She lifted her empty glass and wiggled it in the air.

“Stop it,” Troy warned.

Lucille’s lips tightened at the corners. Her dark eyes reflected pinpoints of light from the lamps glowing from the end tables, and she seemed distant and cold.

“Come on, Mom, let’s get you upstairs where you can lie down. Ian, can you help me?” Amanda asked and seemed none the worse for her accid

ent.

Lucille was on her feet in an instant. “I’ll take her to her room.”

But Amanda was already helping Berneda off the couch. “Come on, Mom . . . Ian?”

“I’ll get her,” he said and picked Berneda up to carry her up the stairs. Amanda was right behind him, and Lucille, never one to be far from her charge, followed at a slower pace as she gripped the handrail and eased up the steps.

“I think she’ll be all right,” Doc Fellers said as he zipped up his medical bag. “This week has been hard on her. I’ve left a prescription for a tranquilizer with Lucille, and I want it filled if Berneda becomes agitated again.”

“Mom was agitated?” Caitlyn asked, worried all over again.

“Upset,” Troy explained.

“You can call me day or night,” the doctor said. That was the way it had always been. For as long as Caitlyn could remember. If there was a medical problem or emergency, Henry Fellers was telephoned. Sometimes they’d meet him at the hospital, or he was called in to the emergency room, but more often than not, he came here, to this old plantation home. Like an old horse-and-buggy doctor of a hundred and fifty years ago. Which was odd. In this day and age of HMOs, specialized medicine, high-tech treatments with MRIs and CT scans, along with laser surgeries, computer images, and conference calls to specialists all over the country, Doc Fellers was a throwback to the nineteenth century.

Odder still, Caitlyn was nearly certain that the Montgomery clan were his only remaining patients. He’d been semiretired for fifteen years or so and yet, no matter what time of day or night, if needed, he raced to Oak Hill. Berneda’s migraines and heart condition, Caitlyn’s sinus infections, Charles’s broken collarbone, Amanda’s concussion, Hannah’s abortion . . .

---