I found out he was going with another girl. You see, Alexandria? I know how you must be feeling about this Reggie character. After all, the entire Magnolia League started because a boy double-crossed me.”
My grandmother refills our drinks and walks around turning off certain lights and turning on others, until the luxurious, fragrant room is set exactly to her liking. Then she settles down into the deep cushions of her striped silk couch.
“Things were different then. I know we older ladies always say that to you, and therefore it’s a statement you likely find very boring, but down here it really was different. The debutante balls were just that—for coming out into society. I came out on Christmas Eve, 1957. A week later, Thomas Warren was at my house with a ring.”
I frown, trying to imagine being engaged at this age.
“I was thrilled. Thomas was twenty, and the best-looking boy in Savannah. He was the best dancer in town and an absolutely wonderful tennis player. There was something so deliciously aloof about him. Also, his father was building those big hotels on the coast. All of the other debutantes—your grandmothers included, girls—were seething with jealousy at the news.
“However, I was never convinced that he was in love with me. I never told the other girls this, but whenever we talked, he seemed very distracted. He wanted to marry me, of course, or he wouldn’t have asked. But it was as if he wanted to marry what I was… not who I was.
“I told myself I was imagining things. As you might guess, I’ve never had a self-esteem problem, and frankly I couldn’t imagine why he wouldn’t be infatuated with me. All of the other boys were. Then one day Hayes’s grandmother Sybil and I were at the beach on Tybee Island. The end of the beach was a deserted stretch back then, so we’d decided to work on our tans… alfresco, if you know what I mean. Well, we looked down the beach and there was Thomas, in an extremely compromising position with another girl. I recognized her too. A waitress, no less.”
“What a jerk,” I said, angrily picturing Reggie with Crystal again.
“Exactly,” my grandmother said. “Sybil, rash as she is, wanted to run up to them and dump a bucket of water over their heads. I said no—we’d think of something better. But then something strange happened. Before I could hatch a truly great plan, Thomas’s father fell horribly ill.
“It was the most frightening illness I’ve ever seen. I went over to be with Thomas—he didn’t know at the time that I knew he was a rat—and heard Mr. Warren screaming in his bed. His eyes were wild and yellow, and foam was coming out of his mouth.
“At one point during the evening, I was alone with the patient. Everyone had left the room, presumably to have a drink or a quick bath. I was sitting near Thomas’s father, horrified but too ashamed to leave him by himself. I’d always liked him. He was inappropriate at times—a grabber, if you know what I mean—but he was charming and loved spending money. I felt bad about his pain. He turned to me, his eyes desperate, his mouth dripping.
“ ‘Dorothy, I’ve been hexed,’ he whispered.
“ ‘What?’ I asked. ‘What did you say?’
“ ‘Doc Buzzard,’ he said. ‘Out on the island. The hotel property… hexed.’
“ ‘We’re taking you to the hospital,’ I said in what I hoped was a kind voice.
“ ‘It won’t work,’ he said desperately. ‘Hexed.’
“Then he fainted.
“The Warrens came in after that and took him to the hospital, but the doctors couldn’t discover what was wrong with him. I didn’t tell anyone what Mr. Warren had said to me. By the next day, he was dead.”
Miss Lee pauses to drain her brandy. Then she looks each of us in the eye.
“Before I go on, I should tell you girls that I never wanted Thomas hurt. That was never my intention, even as I grew more curious about Doc Buzzard, even as I began to gently inquire where such a man might live. I was interested in a hex, however. My motivation—keep in mind, I was young and foolish!—was to afflict Thomas with the same illness his father had, but then I would offer a cure, thereby both scaring him and saving the day. If I managed to save him, I reasoned, he would afford me the respect I deserved and forget about the trashy tramp on the beach.
“It