An Old Fashioned Southern Romance Novel Read Online Free

to be more difficult than she anticipated. By all accounts, both Hattie and Annabella should have been out of the house over ten years ago.
    “Maybe if you weren’t such a racist, your nanny would have stayed around,” Annabella reasoned.
    “Me? A racist? That corset has finally cut off the oxygen flow to your empty little head. I am the furthest thing from a racist. All I ever did was try to help the Blacks. They never gave a hoot about me. Never! My father was more than fair to them.”
    “Your father is practically the Grand Dragon himself. He has more sheets than Linens and Things.”
    Annabella tickled herself. She took such delight in getting Caroline’s feathers ruffled and her face was as pink as a carnation. Annabella knew she had gotten the better of her girlhood friend.
    “I am not racist and I will prove it,” Caroline assured her.
    “How do you propose to do that?” Annabella took the bait.
    “I am going to date Chadsworth Montgomery.”
    Annabella’s face stiffened and her mouth dropped wide open.
    “You wouldn’t dare,” she told her friend.
    “I would,” Caroline assured her.
    “Caroline, you do not need to prove anything to me,” she told her friend in her most southern voice.
    “Apparently I do. I am going to do something you and your powder-white confidants would never dream of doing. I will show you for once and for all that Caroline Cordelia Collinsworth is no racist.”
    With that, she flung her stringy hair and turned abruptly. She turned up her nose and walked away with a bounce in her step.
    “As if,” Annabella said under her breath.
    But she knew it was no use trying to talk her friend out of the idea of dating Chad. Caroline was as stubborn as a mule at a Republican convention. She was not to be handle d lightly. Telling her that she cannot do something is the easiest way to get her to do something. Annabella was concerned, however, about the long-term consequences. She knew that Caroline was essentially pursuing Chad on a dare. But, what about when the relationship ends? Caroline was already considered damaged goods in their circle. If she dated a Black man, she would surely be unmarriable. Annabella hated herself for thinking such a thing, but she knew it was true. And soon she started to wonder if she was racist too, or was she just realistic. But, it was of no matter to her at the present time. She was in Martha’s Vineyard to have a fine time and forget about the treachery of the days that preceded her impromptu vacation. She wanted to relax, have a good time, and forget about the perils of being a rich, beautiful socialite living a mundane existence.

Chapter Five
    Annabella was mortified when she awake ned for the ninth and final time. She could tell by the sliver of light peering through her magnificent view that it was way past the time any decent girl would have returned to her sleeping quarters. Caroline had been out all night and Annabella was worried that the girl might be somewhere lying in a gutter. Of course, there were no gutters to speak of in Martha’s Vineyard, most assuredly, but she was certain that her friend was in just as much trouble. She had not slept most of the night, awakening at the sound of every horn blowing, at blinding flashes of light, at the sound of young socialites frolicking gaily on the beaches and boardwalks. While outwardly annoyed, Annabella was secretly jealous of all those young men and women who knew how to have fun. She was so caught up in the identity she had fashioned out of her father’s social standing and her mother’s neuroticism that she was unable to free herself from the confines of the family name to craft her own. All she knew how to be was a prude. Until now, she was perfectly happy with it. But, now she was beginning to realize what she was giving up by holding steadfast to it. While she was holed up in her plush quarters, Caroline was probably out having the time of her life, tasting the sweet juices of life