Through an Open Window: A Novel

Through an Open Window: A Novel

A charming, heartfelt novel about the bonds of family, whether found or foretold, from the author of The Sweet Taste of Muscadines . In the small Southern town of Wesleyan, Georgia, where the air smells of red clay and sea salt, Margaret Elliot has lived a seemingly charmed life—until the recent loss of her beloved husband. Since then, Margaret has been seeing visions of her aunt Edith, the indomitable woman who raised her after her parents died when she was a baby. As these mysterious and undeniable visitations continue, Margaret becomes convinced that Aunt Edith is trying to tell her something important. As she follows the clues that almost magically present themselves, it becomes clear there is a secret from Margaret’s past waiting to be uncovered. As Margaret grapples with each new revelation, she also worries about her three grown children. Her stoic and inscrutable eldest daughter, Mouse, continues to struggle with the grief of losing her father. Her son Lawrie, always his mother’s favorite, faces life-altering changes that he both longs for and fears—while Tom, Lawrie’s twin, must wrestle with the consequences of a work decision that has blown up his entire life. Despite the tensions among the siblings as they argue about how best to support their mother, the whole family is soon embroiled in uncovering the truth the ghost of Aunt Edith is striving to expose. Through an Open Window invites us to see the grace that is so often there in the background, just waiting to be revealed. And reminds us that not even death can keep love from winning out in the end. “ Through an Open Window is a profoundly moving novel of friendship, love, and the unfolding of family secrets that upturn the lives of Margaret and her children, each struggling with loss and the echoes of the hidden past. Entering a Pamela Terry novel is like falling into a mystical world where anything is possible. With exquisite turns of phrase that are as rich as the vivid southern landscape, Pamela Terry creates a luminous tale where the unseen becomes a guiding force, rising to ask: What if everything we believe is not true? And in the answering, Terry gifts us a story as enduring as love itself.” —Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of The Story She Left Behind A lifelong Southerner, Pamela Terry learned the power of storytelling at a very early age. Terry is the author of The Sweet Taste of Muscadines and the internationally popular blog From the House of Edward, which was named one of the top ten home blogs of the year by London's The Telegraph . She lives in Georgia with her songwriter husband, Pat, and their three dogs, Apple, Andrew, and George. She travels to the Scottish Highlands as frequently as possible. October 1956 Bentonia, Mississippi Fall came late to Mississippi that year. Long after the rest of the country had pulled out the sweaters and unplugged the fans, black gnats still swarmed in the humid air and heat lightning split the night sky. Down at the end of Pepper Creek Road, tempers flared, and hope was thin on the ground. Sheriff Dilbeck had been called to the house before. Today as he drove through the packed, rutted dirt he didn’t push his cruiser over thirty. No churning cloud of red dust followed behind him, looking for cracks in the windows. He was in no danger of hitting those tire-busting potholes at speed. There was no need to hurry; Hutch Dilbeck knew what to expect. Later that night, he would remember how he sang along to the radio on the way. “The Tennessee Waltz.” His wife’s favorite. He would never sing that song again. The house squatted back off the road in wire grass, like a tick on a long-haired dog. The porch had collapsed on one end, as though God himself had just balled up his fist and punched it, and Hutch had never seen a blade of green grass in the yard. He stopped the car, rolled down the window, and listened. The air was as still as held breath. He should have known then, but he didn’t. Of course, he didn’t. Until the day that he died, forty years later, Sheriff Hutch Dilbeck couldn’t remember walking up to the door. All that remained was the baby girl he grabbed off the blood-spattered floor, the one who sat so still and quiet on his lap in the cruiser while the two of them waited for the ambulance to come screaming back down the road. Everybody had gone by the time the lightning bugs began sprinkling the pine trees with yellow. Nobody saw the little boy when he toddled out of the woods and stood by the ruined porch, looking this way and that way for the family that was now gone for good. Hutch told Martine they’d have to call the midwife. She was the person who’d know what to do. But Martine said one night wouldn’t hurt anybody. “You’re the sheriff. Nobody will care.” And Hutch let his wife have her way. She looked so right holding that baby. So, they kept the little girl in their room that night. Hutch took a drawer from out of the old dresser, rem