Lightning Strikes (Hudson 2)

"Nonsense," he replied. "You're nobody yet."

Now it was time for me to raise my eyebrows. Did he know it all? Had Victoria written that letter of spite?

"You're in the process of becoming someone, as are most young women your age, but you don't have any real identity yet. However, you still have the opportunity to shape yourself, your personality, your entire being.

"I'm not surprised at the way you behave and how you speak to people, especially older people. All the Americans I know have that same smugness, arrogance."

"Arrogance? Us? It seems to me it's the other way around. You think you've invented the wheel here, calling us the Colonies. America is the greatest country in the world."

He stared at me a moment and then he laughed.

"All right, all right. Let's not debate who has the best society and who has contributed the most to civilization. The fact is I called you here not to dispose of you and your services, but to offer to help you," he said in a much softer tone of voice.

"Help me?" I was surprised. "How?"

"You need, for the lack of another term, more refinement. I, like my wife, think you can become someone, but you've got to smooth out those rough edges. I understand you've had a hard time up until now and you have done remarkably well considering all that, but you've got to go a little further in other ways and I can help you with that, I think."

"I don't understand what you want to do," I said shaking my head. "How can you help me?"

"I'll teach you manners, give you the benefit of my upbringing, but you have to be cooperative and for now, for reasons I think best left unstated, I'd like it to remain something only known to you and me." "Teach me manners?"

"How to conduct yourself in polite society. In short, behavioral etiquette."

"I know how to behave."

"Not for the world you're going to be in. Making a good impression is half the battle. Well?"

"I guess," I said, shrugging. I still didn't exactly understand what he was proposing.

"No, the proper thing to say is 'Thank you very much. I appreciate your willingness to work with me.' Now then," he continued, sitting back, "you might have noticed we have a guest cottage behind the house. It's not used for very much these days, but it's well kept."

"Yes," I said nearly breathless. Hadn't Boggs ever told him about finding me outside the cottage window?

"We'll make it our special classroom for a while. I have a few changes to make in it and then advise you when we'll begin," he declared.

I stared at him. Classroom? What was he talking about? "You still don't seem too appreciative of my offer," he said.

"I'm afraid I still don't understand it. What will we do exactly?"

"I will create social situations for you and explain how you should act, behave, what you should expect. As a student of the theater, you'll have no problem with a little pretending, I assure you," he said. "They'll be nothing all that difficult, but-I know it will be of great benefit to you."

"Why do you want to do anything more for me? You said yourself you weren't all that happy about my coming here in the first place."

He looked down for a long moment and then raised his eyes slowly, the look on his face much less formal, much warmer.

"I don't talk about her anymore. It's too painful for Leonora, but we had a daughter who died when she was a little girl. Of course, I think about her often and I regret that I was never able to give her the things I dreamed of giving her, least of which is the benefit of my worldly and social knowledge.

"Had she lived, she might have been a talented young lady such as yourself. I can see her about your age in my mind. There is so much I would have wanted to tell her, show her. I have been frustrated, cheated by her untimely passing.

"What I might have given her, I can give to you. In all modesty, any girl would be quite flattered and appreciative, I expect." He took a deep breath and looked at me. "In short, I'm willing to be more of a father than an employer. Well?" he asked quickly.

"Thank you," I said, moved by his speech, but still a little frightened after what I had seen between him and Mary Margaret. Did he expect I would put on little girl's clothes and suck on a lollipop, too?

"Good." He picked up his cigar. "I'll let you know when everything is as I want it to be at the cottage. Until then, please keep those sassy horses in their stables."

He nodded and turned his chair as a way of saying "You can go now."

I got up slowly, paused at the doorway to look back at him staring out his window, and then left, my heart thumping like a parade drum all the way back to my little room.