First Impressions (Edenton 1)

It was over.

Chapter Twenty-six

“EDEN,” Brad said, reaching for her hand. He was half reclining on the cushioned swing in front of his house, a cane propped against the wall. Summer had finally come to Arundel, and the unusually cool spring was over.

Eden didn’t take his hand, acting as though she didn’t see it. Holding on to her glass of sweet tea, she looked out at Arundel. She now had absolutely everything that she’d ever dreamed of having. It was as though she’d spent her entire life as a tightly wrapped flower bud, and now she was at last blossoming. When she was a child and had lived with her repressive parents who told her that everything in life was bad, she’d looked at the other children at her school with longing. She used to listen to them talk about their parties and their dates, and she imagined what it would be like to be one of them.

When she’d become pregnant and had been discarded by her parents, thrown out, tossed aside like so much rubbish, she’d been terrified beyond comprehension. She’d been too young to think clearly, but the question Why me? had filled her mind.

Mrs. Farrington had been the first person who had really cared about her, and Eden used to imagine what it would be like to be Mrs. Farrington. She daydreamed about growing up in that beautiful house, with that beautiful garden, and belonging to a group of people whose friendship extended back hundreds of years. To belong! she thought. To belong to a group of people who never threw you out.

In the last weeks since Melissa had been kidnapped, Eden had found out that a lot of people knew about Drake Haughton’s mental instability. The young man hadn’t been kidding when he said that all he’d done was draw Brad’s ideas. Eden found out that Drake had never wanted to be an architect. Just like Tyrrell Farrington, Drake had wanted to study fine art. But Drake’s father, like Tyrrell’s father a century before, had forbidden his son to do something so bohemian. If Drake wanted his father to pay for his education, if Drake wanted to receive his inhe

ritance, then he’d have to get a proper degree in a proper subject, and use his education. Out of friendship, Brad had given Drake a job, but the young man had been driven nearly insane with longing for a different life.

Now Eden looked out at the perfect little town of Arundel, and it seemed different to her. In the years that she’d had to raise a child by herself, memories of this pretty little town had kept her going. It was what she strove to achieve. She’d never had much money, but she’d taught her daughter the good manners that Mrs. Farrington had taught Eden. Melissa knew how to converse, how to say please and thank you. She knew how to act at a party. No, Eden thought, her daughter hadn’t been raised to be a kid who wore blue jeans and ate fast food. Her daughter—

“Eden?” Brad asked again. “Are you here with me?”

She took a sip of her tea and smiled. “Of course I am. I’m just thinking, that’s all.”

“You’ve been through a lot,” he said.

“We have.” She drank more of her tea and looked back at the town. Yes, she’d been through a lot in the short time that she’d been back here in Arundel. She’d returned to a town that she’d known as a child, but now she was an adult. And as an adult, she saw things that she hadn’t seen before.

“Want to talk to me about anything?” Brad asked.

“Not yet,” she said, still smiling. She knew what he meant. Two days after the FBI had taken Jolly and his men away, Brad had asked her to marry him. “You were magnificent,” he’d said.

Eden had wanted to explain about her and Jared and what that odious Jolly had said in the icehouse, but Brad had put a finger to her lips. “We’re adults,” he said. “We’ve both made mistakes. We’ve hurt each other. I think we should start over, don’t you?”

At the time, Eden had agreed with him, but later she thought that she didn’t want to start over. It wasn’t right to go through what they had and learn so much, then discard it and pretend that it hadn’t happened.

In the last weeks, Eden had seen that it was at last time to let go of her daughter. No more tug-of-war. No more tearing Melissa down in the middle and making her choose between her husband and her mother.

After everything had calmed down, Eden had sat down with her daughter and a huge bowl of popcorn and they’d talked. Not with all the boundaries that mother-daughter placed on them, but as woman to woman. Eden was shocked to hear what had been going on among her and Stuart and Eden. Eden realized that she’d caused her daughter many tears by not letting her grow up, by not letting her leave. “But you’re all I have,” Eden said.

“Don’t you think I know that? I am your entire life! You have nothing else but me! And all I’ve ever had is you!”

Melissa told her mother about the call from Minnie and the information about her father. Melissa had called him immediately and had paid for his plane ticket to fly to Greenville.

“But all he wanted was money,” Melissa said. “And he tried to make me believe that you had seduced him.” With tears running down her face, Melissa told what the man had said, that Eden had ruined his marriage, ruined his whole life. “He blamed you for all his problems. He…” At the end, Walter Runkel had run his hand up Melissa’s arm in a way that had made her flee the airport and run into Drake Haughton’s arms.

That talk changed them. Melissa said she wanted her husband and child, but she was afraid to leave her mother alone. After much hesitation, Eden at last admitted that she had no idea in the world what she wanted.

“But you’re a rich woman now,” Melissa said. “You have this house and this town that you’ve always loved, and Brad adores you. You could marry him and live here forever. I can see you as the Grande Dame of the whole town.” She was teasing her mother. “I can see that ambitious young women would fight to be invited to your parties. What you wear will be reported in the local newspaper.” She waved her hand about the house. “You could have a New York interior designer come here and drape this place in silk. You could get into Architectural Digest. Wouldn’t that be something for a little girl who was thrown into the streets? Mother! Maybe you could get on Oprah and tell your story.”

Eden didn’t smile at Melissa’s vision. It was nearly the same vision Jared had given her, except that this time it was presented in a way meant to entice. “Mrs. Farrington said that this house was dead until I put a baby in it.”

Melissa clasped her mother’s hand. “Stuart and I and the baby will visit you often. Every long weekend and every holiday. Did you know that Remi has asked Stuart to handle the books for his new landscaping business?”

Eden smiled. After the police and the FBI arrived, Brad told them that Remi had saved his life. One of Jolly’s men had wanted to kill Brad, but Remi had quickly said that he knew where all of the paintings were and he’d tell if they didn’t hurt Brad. In the end, Remi had hoisted his wounded father-in-law across his shoulder and carried him to the car.

When Brad was in the hospital and thanking Remi, the young man said, “I want my own landscaping company. I don’t want to work for you or anyone else.” His eyes were defiant and he was standing up to his full height, his shoulders back.

“You have it,” Brad said, “and if you need—”

“I have everything else that I need,” Remi said, his arm around Cammie’s shoulders.