Page 136 of Save the Date
There were six responses to Holly’s post, including Brooke’s.
Can’t wait!
Cara was just about to post something on her own Facebook page about the Trapnell wedding when the kitchen door opened and Poppy came bounding out to the garden, with Bert right behind. He was waving a large white paper sack.
“Guess who went to Back in the Day for bacon cheddar biscones for breakfast?”
***
She called ahead to make sure the Fannings would be home. Lillian’s voice dripped ice. “We’ve got brunch plans at eleven. What’s this about Cara?”
Cara ignored the question. “It won’t take long. I can be there in twenty minutes.”
It didn’t get much better than Isle of Hope on a warm June morning. The live oaks lent cool shade, the sun sparkled off sailboats skittering over the river, and not a single blade of jade-green grass at the Shutters was anything less than perfection. It could have been a cover forSouthern Livingmagazine.
Lillian Fanning sat stiffly on a wicker armchair on her porch and looked down at the epergne, which Cara had handed over without a word.
She picked it up, turned it over, and studied the hallmark. She held it up to the light, turning it this way and that, looking for dents or scratches, or any other clue to where the epergne might have been for these past weeks.
“It doesn’t look any the worse for wear,” Lillian admitted, her lips pursed. “And you won’t tell me how you managed to find it?”
Cara had been rehearsing her response all morning. She delivered her lines as practiced.
“Somebody… who has a grudge against me took it. Not because it was so valuable or to sell it. To cause trouble for me, and ruin my reputation. A friend found where this person had hidden the epergne, and last night, he brought it back to me. And now, I’m returning it to you.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Lillian’s face was flushed. “Torie was right. I should have known better. All these weeks, I’ve thought, and I’ve said, really terrible things about you. To that police detective, to my friends.” She shook her head. “I am deeply, deeply ashamed of myself right now, Cara. And I’m afraid an apology won’t even begin to make things right with you.”
“An apology is all that’s needed,” Cara said. “Thank you, Lillian. I’ll let you get to your brunch now.”
Lillian reached out and touched Cara’s bare arm. Her fingertips were cool.
“You know, Cara, we Southerners pride ourselves on good manners. Torie says I’m a big snob about these kinds of things, and that’s something else she’s probably right about. You’re from up North someplace… Michigan?”
“Ohio.”
“I knew it was one of those places. Anyway, I just want to tell you that the way you handled this whole episode, with such dignity, and the way you just accepted my totally inadequate apology with such grace, says a lot to me about who you are and how you were raised.”
Cara smiled. “My mother would have been happy to hear you say that.”
“Where was your mother from?”
“Actually? Kentucky.”
Lillian’s eyes twinkled. “That explains everything. Seriously though, Cara. I guess that’s a lesson learned for me. You don’t have to be Southern to have good manners. And you don’t have to be a Yankee to make a total ass of yourself.”
That got a laugh from Cara. She was halfway across the lawn when Lillian called out to her. “I’m going to make it up to you, Cara. You wait. Your phone is going to be ringing. There won’t be a bride within a hundred miles of this town who won’t be calling you.”
***
“Man, I hate it when you have to act all classy and grown-up, instead of goingoffon a bitch,” Bert complained, after Cara gave him the blow-by-blow of her encounter with Lillian Fanning.
They were upstairs in the apartment, and he was helping her finish packing books. “Grown-up is definitely not as fun,” Cara agreed. “But I’d much rather have Lillian as an ally than an enemy. Now she owes me, or she thinks she does. And that’s a good thing, considering the rent on Hall Street is double what I paid here.”
Bert gave her a quizzical look. “What happened with Jack Finnerty? I got the impression you two were pretty hot and heavy.”
“Where’d you hear that?”
“Cullen has spies everywhere,” Bert explained. “After Jack took a pass on doing the work over here, he started asking around. I think Patricia Trapnell probably helped him put it together because of all the work Jack and his brother were doing over at the Strayhorns.”
