Lightning Strikes (Hudson 2)

"You always travel first class, Victoria," I heard Grandmother Hudson remind her

"That's me. I'm your daughter. I run the affairs here. I should travel first class. That... girl is a family disgrace, someone to hide, not blatantly wave about as if we're all so proud my sister had an illegitimate child with a black man. Daddy would turn over in his grave. He didn't even travel first class!"

"Your father never took advantage of his money. I never understood the reason for making it if you don't enjoy it," Grandmother Hudson said calmly.

"Exactly my point. She didn't make it, did she?"

"When will you understand that what I do with my money is my business, Victoria? We've had this conversation ad nauseam. If you want to be thrifty, be so with your own money and leave me alone."

"I saw how much that school is costing, too," Victoria said, ignoring Grandmother Hudson's wishes. "It's ridiculous to assume she has any talent on the basis of a school play. Conor MacWaine is robbing us. He probably enjoys taking advantage of stupid Americans?'

"Are you calling me stupid?"

"It's not very bright to spend forty thousand dollars on...on that girl becoming an actress."

"If you're quite finished..."

"I'm not finished. I want to know when you're calling your attorney about the will, Mother."

"I told you what I've done I will not undo. When you make up your own will, you can leave her out."

"What?" Victoria's laugh was more like a thin squeal. "You don't thinkI'd ever include her in my will, do you? Oh, what's the use? I'm wasting my breath?'

"Finally, you say something intelligent."

"Everyone shouldn't depend on me keeping my mouth shut forever about this, Mother. One of these days..?'

"You'll do nothing," Grandmother Hudson snapped. "If you so much as suggest

"It's not right and it's ... unhealthy to be coddling her like this. Megan should be ashamed of what she has done to the rest of us."

It grew quiet and then a few moments later, Victoria emerged from the room and stomped out of the house. I hoped she had marched out of my life. She was so bitter, with her teeth clenched all the time and her eyebrows turned in like ..someone with a continuous headache. She seemed to take pleasure in nothing. I didn't think she even liked herself, much less me. I imagined she lived in a house without mirrors so she could avoid looking at herself.

When I saw Grandmother Hudson later in the day, I didn't mention hearing any of the conversation between her and Victoria. I was sure she wanted me to forget it as quickly as she apparently did. She enjoyed so little in the way of pleasure from her children and grandchildren. It made me reconsider what it means to be rich and to be poor.

Just as he had promised, Jake was there early the next morning. We had barely finished breakfast when he arrived. After he stepped into the dining room, I realized I rarely, if ever, had seen Jake in the house. Occasionally he would bring in groceries or whatever packages had to be carried, but usually he waited outside by the can This morning he looked spiffy. His uniform was cleaned and pressed and the brim of his cap glittered in the light of the chandelier.

"Morning, ladies," he declared as he took a tiny bow. "I am here to fetch the princess and her things for her journey to the Old World."

"Don't make a fool of yourself this early in the morning, Jake Marvin," Grandmother Hudson warned. She glanced quickly at me and then

straightened with a military posture in her chair. "Everything is waiting in her room."

"Thank you, ladies," he replied with a smile on his lips, pivoted and paraded off to get my luggage.

"I'll miss Jake," I said, looking after him with a soft smile on my face.

"Yes, well, when you get to London, you'll see the way a chauffeur is supposed to behave, I'm sure. My sister wears her servants like ribbons on her chest. They're all properly uniformed and trained. My brother-in-law runs his home as if it was a Swiss timepiece. They live their lives according to the tick of that grandfather's clock. The English and their high tea.

'When I think of what a dizzy, foolish little girl Leonora was before she went to finishing school and then to England, I marvel at what one's ego can accomplish," Grandmother Hudson said.

"Don't you like your sister?"

"Like her? Of course I don't like her. I love her as I should love a sister, but we never got along. Now that I think of it, your mother takes after Leonora more than she takes after me. Some gene must have jumped ship when I wasn't looking," she added.

"Are you sure your sister really wants me there?" I asked, still suspicious about everyone's motives.

"Leonora doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do, even though she owes me more than she can ever repay. I don't mean to make her seem unpleasant. I have no doubt you'll enjoy your stay there and she'll be able to brag about the great charitable thing she's doing, and for an American no less!"