Savage Beauty - Peggy Webb
Chapter One
Ocean Springs could be any other coastal town in the Deep South with its quaint shops and tea rooms overlooking the blue waters of the Mississippi Sound where everything from fishing boats to yachts ride the waves. But the truth of this otherwise sleepy town is far more dramatic.
Ninety miles of barrier islands, lying ten miles offshore, separate the sound from the Gulf of Mexico and create protected waters fed by two great rivers--the Pearl and the Pascagoula. The combination of salt and fresh water forms a sea teeming with plant and animal life.
And many would say secrets.
In the early twentieth century, the wildly eccentric artist Walter Anderson put Ocean Springs on the map by capturing the magic of sea and island on canvas. His art and his history still loom over the town.
But looming even larger is Allistair Manor, a gothic mansion on the highest point in the outskirts of the city that protects the lives, loves and scandals of three generations of Allistairs, the royal family of American horticulture.
Sitting inside her bedroom suite in the second floor west wing of the manor, Lily felt the full weight of the house, the family name, and its legends. This evening she would be introduced to the world as the woman who would soon become an Allistair. This evening her life would change forever.
Her mind told her everything was going to be perfect, but her heart had its own opinion. It beat like the wings of a caged wild bird.
Even the diamond and ruby necklace in the jeweler’s box on her dressing table made a statement about her future. Twenty-seven carats of precious stones winked at her with eyes turned fiery in the lamplight, and yet secretive as they nestled among the folds of the black velvet box.
The gift was the latest of many from her fiancé, Stephen, all far too extravagant. Lily was not a diamonds and rubies kind of woman. She wasn’t even a lady-of-the-manor kind of girl. She was a practical single mom and interior designer who had moved in with her fiancé a week ago because her lease was about to run out. With the wedding now less than three weeks away, it didn’t make sense to pay another year’s rent.
Besides, it was far easier to redecorate her new home onsite than to run back and forth from her downtown apartment. And there was the crux of her problem. This was no ordinary house. It was a dark mausoleum filled with outdated furniture and locked rooms.
How could she ever make it a home if there were rooms she couldn’t enter? When she’d broached the subject to Stephen, he’d told her the archives of Allistair Roses were housed behind locked doors to protect the horticultural secrets of one of the world’s most famous families of rose breeders. Preventing piracy in the business was common.
Still, the very idea of forbidden rooms in her own home had sent her to the new online site, FamilySecrets.life, where a team of psychologists offered advice and private counseling on an array of family issues. She’d been reassured to learn that it was the relationship, not the house, that mattered. She was on solid ground with Stephen.
“I worry too much. That’s all.”
She could—and would--transform the living quarters and turn the house into a home she would love. Hopefully, so would her daughter.
Annabelle was storming down the hallway this very minute, making no bones about her state of mind. Lily would recognize her daughter’s combative march anywhere.
“Mom!” Annabelle knocked once but didn’t wait for an answer. She swept into the bedroom, her strawberry blond hair in a messy ponytail, her tee shirt untucked from her blue jeans, and her full panoply of teenaged angst on display. “I look dorky in this dress. I don’t care if your stupid fiancé did give it to me. I’m not wearing it to the party.”
Her daughter tossed the dress onto the bed and crossed her arms over her chest. At fifteen, she was already showing the curves of maturity. Not as much as her best friend Cee Cee, who trailed behind her, but still Lily felt a momentary shock at how quickly time had flown.
It seemed only yesterday Lily had been a teenager herself, fatherless, living on the edge of poverty, and pregnant out of wedlock.
“Let me take a look.” When Lily picked up the dress, Annabelle rolled her eyes.
“See! It’s pink. With ruffles!”
Lily wished her fiancé had consulted her first. But when had someone as powerful as an