“Exactly.”
“Life seemed simpler when we were young,” Imogene said. “Though I admit, I’ve relaxed since I’ve been here. There’s something sultry and seductive about this place.”
“It’s the magic of the lowcountry. And the rum,” Marietta added conspiratorially.
Both women laughed.
Imogene picked up Marietta’s fan. “May I?”
“Please.” Marietta gestured.
Imogene began fanning lazily. “You know, it’s a wonderful thing you’ve done for your granddaughters. Bringing them all here to spend this time together. I can see how close they are. They’re really quite devoted to one another.”
Marietta’s breath caught at the power of that statement. “You can’t know what that means to me to hear you say that. I was acting purely on instinct. The girls had drifted so far apart. Not only in geography, but in their communication with one another. They’d become little more than strangers.”
“It happens in families. More often than not.”
“Then it’s up to us to fix that. I’ve been accused of being controlling, of being a manipulator . . . more often by Harper, I might add. Truth be told, I didn’t know what I was doing. But I had to do something. Felt it in every fiber of my being. Sea Breeze had to be sold. I couldn’t change that. But even if my girls didn’t have Sea Breeze, I wanted them to have each other.”
“You’re a wonderful grandmother.” Imogene hiccuped.
Marietta removed her sunglasses and dabbed at her eyes with a paper napkin. “But I was not a wonderful mother. You met my son, Parker, didn’t you?”
“Once. They were married and divorced so fast, you know. A handsome man.”
“He was, wasn’t he?” Mamaw felt a twinge in her heart. “I mollycoddled him. The doctors today have a fancy new term for mothers like me. Enablers.”
Imogene scoffed and waved her hand dismissively. “Bollocks! Don’t they just love to blame the mother. They said that about me, too. With Georgiana.”
“Really?”
“Indeed they did. Enable? Pshaw.” Imogene again waved her hand. “I’m ashamed to admit, I hardly knew what the girl was doing most of the time.”
Marietta burst out laughing, then covered her mouth. “Sorry.”
“But it was the way we were raised. Children were seen and not heard, eh? I had a nanny for Georgiana, as Georgiana had for Harper. Of course,” Imogene said defensively, “I oversaw all things that concerned my daughter. Directly.”
“Well, you’re a wonderful grandmother, too.” Marietta again patted Imogene’s hand.
“I am,” Imogene staunchly agreed. “Harper is so easy to love.”
Marietta returned a watery smile. “She is.”
“What’s going to happen to them, do you think? Harper and Taylor. Can he provide for her?”
“I believe he can. Not, perhaps, in the style she was raised, but comfortably. And more important, happily.”
“She truly loves this place, doesn’t she?” Imogene’s gaze traveled across the Cove, then to the house. “This Sea Breeze.”
“Yes, she does.”
“And it’s a family home? Generations and all?” Imogene asked, referring to the question Marietta had asked earlier.
“Yes. Ask me sometime to tell you the story of the founding member of our family in Charleston.”
“The pirate, you mean?”
Marietta laughed lightly and wagged her brows. “Indeed.”
Imogene laughed, fanning herself rapidly.
They fell into a comfortable silence, each lost in her own thoughts.
“Have you sold the house?”
Marietta shook her head. “Not yet. We’re in negotiations. In all honesty I’m dragging my feet. Devlin tells me sooner or later I have to bite the bullet and just accept an offer. They’re all what he refers to as ‘good.’”
“Dora’s Devlin? He’s your real estate agent?”
“Yes.”
“Good God, Marietta, you’re putting your fortune in the hands of that redback?”
Marietta’s laugh was hearty. “Don’t let his good-ol’-boy mannerisms fool you. That boy is as sly as a fox in the henhouse when it comes to business.”
Imogene shifted the towel on her shoulders and didn’t appear convinced. “So, the house is still for sale?”
Marietta had been bringing her glass to her mouth, but her hand stilled midair because of something in the way Imogene had asked that question.
Imogene removed her sunglasses and gave Marietta a look laden with import.
Marietta lowered the glass and straightened in her chair. “It is.”
“I see.” Imogene folded the fan in her hand with a snap. “Don’t sell it.”
“Oh? And why not?”
“I’d like to buy it. Or rather, Harper will buy it.”
“Harper?”
“Eventually. I have to work out a few details yet. I will consult with my lawyers when I get back to England. But if this is what my granddaughter wants, enough that she is willing to throw away her fortune if she can’t have it, then I will move a few mountains to make it happen.”
Mamaw drew a deep breath, a small flutter of hope in her chest. “But, Imogene, are you sure you want to sell Greenfields Park? To help Harper buy Sea Breeze?”
“Don’t be balmy. I don’t need to sell Greenfields Park. Let’s just say that Harper will be borrowing the money from me until she’s thirty. She can repay me when she comes into her trust fund.”
“I thought . . .” Marietta paused, confused. “I thought Georgiana said she would stop Harper from inheriting.”
“Oh, please,” Imogene said with exaggeration. “You don’t think for a moment I’d allow Georgiana to be the executor of Harper’s trust fund?”
“That’s what she told Harper.”
“Of course it is. Georgiana always manipulates the truth to suit her. But it is not true. I am the executor, and not only will Harper inherit her fortune at thirty, she will continue to receive her monthly payments until that time. Georgiana has nothing whatsoever to do with it.”
Marietta burst out laughing and grabbed her glass and raised it. “Brava, Imogene!”