Read Online Bitter Business by Gini Hartzmark - Free Book Online Page B

Lydia arrived late to the party, as usual. Arthur was out of town and I gather there was some sort of problem with the twins—with Lydia there’s always something. Anyway, the party was in full swing by the time she got there and the first thing she did was go off in search of her father to give him her best wishes. I’ll tell you, Kate, when she laid eyes on that necklace around her stepmother’s neck, her hostility was like an electrical current running across the room.”
    “What did she do?”
    “She made the biggest, loudest, ugliest scene I have ever witnessed, and I have witnessed some doozies. Fortunately, Dagny had the presence of mind to collar her brothers, and between the three of them they managed to get Lydia out of there before the evening was totally ruined. As it was, everyone was shaken up. Lydia’s behavior was frightening. She was so completely out of control it was almost like she was having a seizure. She was literally foaming at the mouth as Philip and Eugen bundled her out the door.”
    “Wow.”
    “So now you understand why Jack thinks that Lydia started this business about selling her shares in order to get attention.”
    “More like revenge, I’d say.”
    Daniel sighed and laid down his knife and fork, shaking his head slowly in some unshared recollection.
    “None of this would have happened if Jimmy had lived,” he whispered.
    “Who’s Jimmy?” I asked.
    “Jack and Eleanor’s oldest son.”
    “I thought Philip was the oldest. You mean there was another brother? What happened to him?”
    “He died. Afterward it changed everything for the Cavanaughs.” Daniel touched his napkin to his lips and then replaced it in his lap, smoothing it carefully before picking up the story.
    “Jack has a plantation down in Georgia—the story is that his father won the land in a poker game, but who knows? It doesn’t matter. When Superior started making! a little bit of money, Jack built a house on it for Eleanor.! She was a Georgia girl who missed the South, and besides, he loves to hunt. They named it Tall Pines.”
    “What was she like? Eleanor, I mean.”
    “She was a beautiful, old-fashioned woman and Jack just worshiped her. She ran the house, raised the children, gave her time to the church, and instead of complaining that he was never there, counted herself lucky to have a husband who worked hard to make a success of his business. When he came home she treated him like a king. He was obviously devastated when she died. I think he stayed drunk for an entire year.”
    “And Jimmy was their oldest?” I prompted.
    “Yes. He had just turned thirteen when his mother died. Philip was twelve, Dagny ten, and Eugene nine. Lydia, of course, was just a few days old. A nice, big, Catholic family. Eleanor is buried down at Tall Pines. So is Jimmy.”
    “How old was he when he died?”
    “Seventeen. It is such a shame. He was a wonderful young man. Smart, athletic, a natural leader...”
    “How did he die?”
    “He drowned.” Daniel paused, his eyes clouded over by remembrance. “Jack and the children were down at Tall Pines for Christmas—they went down every year. Jimmy and Philip decided to do some hunting, so they built a blind on the edge of the big pond that sits in the middle of the property and settled down to wait for something to come by to shoot. They hadn’t been there very long when they noticed a local girl walking by herself down toward the water. She caught their eye. It’s private property, after all, and quite an out-of-the-way spot, but a t first they didn’t do anything. Truth be told, they’d probably brought a couple of six-packs along to ward off chill, and as long as she didn’t scare off the birds, they were happy to mind their own business. It wasn’t u ntil she’d walked quite a way out into the water that they realized what she was trying to do.
    “Both boys dove in after her, but Jimmy, being older and a stronger swimmer, got to her first. By the time