Edith Saybrook

"All at once, she knew it for sure: the curse was here again. Or maybe it had never left."

- Edith Saybrook

Edith Saybrook (née Edith Beckett) is the wife of Alfred Saybrook and the matriarch of the Saybrook Family. She helped create Saybrook's Diamonds alongside her husband, but had no idea of the dark secrets behind the companies success.

Series
The Heiresses

Edith is first seen at the church, where she is in attendance of Steven Barnett's funeral, and greets each of her Granddaughters with a "papery kiss". After five years, she is now retired and living her life at one of her many residential properties. She is present at Skylar's birthday party, where she is unsure of the meat that she is eating. She mistakes the sauce of the meat for blood, and, despite Poppy encouraging her to eat it, declines and sends it back to the chef. Later, she gave Aster a disapproving look after her allowance was revoked.

Physical Appearance
Edith bears the signature Saybrook blue eyes and the remnants of once blonde hair. She is thin and withdrawn looking, always wearing heavy sweaters or wraps despite the crushing heat outside. Her lips are described as thin and paper, and her kisses are dry because of it.

Personality
Edith is a serious and focused elderly woman who is very intense at times. She is prim and proper, liking things exactly the way she wants and expects nothing less from those around her. Edith has a peculiar air about her and enjoys the lavish life that she and her husband built. She is also noted to be very old-school, believing in the proper ways of speaking, dressing, handling yourself, and even more political matters such as sexuality - which was lightly mentioned when she didn't approve of Leona being for same-sex marriage.

She is also a strong believer in the Saybrook curse and believes that Steven, Poppy, and her husband died as a result of it. She is wary of new people entering her family's lives, especially Danielle, due to Danielle's mother, Julia's, past history with the family. As she gets older throughout the events of the book, she starts to have a distaste for the things she once liked: the chandeliers, the laughter, even the diamonds. She also experiences frequent memory lapses and personality changes, something that is later revealed to be the effects of her rapidly spreading cancer.

Alfred Saybrook
Alfred and Edith were the power-couple entrepreneurs of New York, and it was only with their combined forces that Saybrook's Diamonds became as large and wealthy as it is today. Edith was crushed when Alfred died at the age of ninety-four.

Notes and Trivia

 * She is the matriarch of the Saybrook family, as she is the oldest living female relative.
 * Arguably, her favorite Granddaughter was Poppy, as noted by several characters throughout the book.
 * She was oblivious to the dark secrets behind Saybrook's Diamonds rise to fortune.