Read Online Major Vices by Mary Daheim - Free Book Online

carrying out the serving dishes. “The Lotts are dumb . How can Uncle Corky stand being married to a stupid woman? He’s really smart.”
    â€œToadie’s shrewd, though,” Judith said under her breath as the family made its procession into the paneled dining room. “Don’t underestimate her.”
    Uncle Boo sat at the head of the table, with his sisters-in-law on each side. Mason Meade was next to Toadie; Derek Rush sat beside his mother, Vivvie. Holly and Jillfilled out the rest of the table. The place at the far end was vacant. Judith could picture Aunt Rosie, a squat, belligerent figure with bright gold curls, presiding in her favorite shade of pink. As the eldest of the Lott sisters, Rosie had always managed to get in the last word.
    The sterling gleamed; the crystal glittered. The Wedgwood china was handsome, formal, Florentine black on white. The linens were edged in handmade lace, probably from Ireland, Judith thought. A pair of lamps with small navy shades sat on either side of a dried floral arrangement in a silver tureen. It was a table fit for a king. Instead, the gathering was made up of knaves, jokers, and a pretender-queen.
    Or so it seemed to Judith. “They look out of place,” she muttered to Renie as the cousins finally had a chance to relax by the sink.
    â€œAunt Toadie doesn’t think so,” Renie replied, pouring them each a glass of wine. “She acts as if she’s running the show.”
    Having temporarily completed their serving tasks, Mrs. Wakefield and Zoe returned to the kitchen. Renie put a question to the housekeeper:
    â€œWe’ve been wondering—whose idea was it to fix this place up?”
    Mrs. Wakefield unpinned her cap and smoothed her graying red hair. “Mrs. G.’s. Who else? Old Boo’d let it fall down around his ears.”
    Judith and Renie exchanged swift glances. “So why do it?” asked Judith.
    The housekeeper snorted. “Dumb question. The old Toad figures she’ll get everything when Boo kicks off. Why do you think she’s been hanging around him like flies on a horse’s behind?”
    At the stove, Zoe lifted the lid from a pot and forked out a mouthful of new potatoes. “Boo’s so lazy he lets Mrs. G. do anything she wants. He has no spunk. And there’s no ‘No’ in his vocabulary.”
    â€œYou got that right,” huffed the housekeeper. “When Mrs. G. showed up this afternoon, she said the masons had been screwing off. I told her to tell the master. Asusual, he just sat there like a lump. Guess who had to fire them?” She stabbed her bosom with her thumb. “Now I suppose I’ll get stuck finding another bunch of bricklayers. Mrs. G. comes in and raises all sorts of hell-oh-bill, then waddles away and expects somebody else to pick up the pieces.”
    Judith gave a slight nod. “That’s Aunt Toadie, all right. But is Boo actually going to leave her everything? What about Derek? He’s always been the favorite. Aunt Rosie and Uncle Boo helped raise him, especially after Uncle Mo got sick.”
    Mrs. Wakefield looked blank. “Who’s Mo?”
    â€œMo—Maurice—Rush,” Judith explained. “He was Aunt Vivvie’s husband. He owned a plumbing company, which was a good thing, because he was chronically ill and never did much real work after he hit forty.”
    â€œRight,” Renie chimed in. “Mo Rush was a hypochondriac who finally had to die to prove he was really sick. Of course, he was almost eighty at the time.”
    The blank expression remained on Mrs. Wakefield’s face. “Maybe I met him once. I don’t remember.”
    â€œProbably not,” said Judith. “He was always too sick to go anywhere. That’s why Aunt Rosie and Uncle Boo hauled Derek along on their trips. The poor kid would never have gotten out of the house otherwise.”
    Zoe had buttered one of the extra rolls