I was living with another man, who knows what hell he'd raise. Besides, you're the one who brought Lance home; now you're going to have to feed him and water him and take him out when he needs to go."
"Mom?" Julia tried her last option.
"No," Madelyn said. "Julia, Nina's right."
"I am?" Nina said, not really believing it.
Madelyn finished: "This is your responsibility."
Chapter Ten
WAY #82: Honor your ancestors.
Families are rich in history. As you seek to make sense of your own life, go back a few generations and learn about the people who went before you. Sift through the years, and you may find answers in their ashes.
—from 101 Ways to Cheat at Solitaire
The little raisin of a woman who summoned Lance fro across the party couldn't have weighed more than hundred pounds, Lance decided, not counting the diamonds. Nina had told him that Ro-Ro's first husband had owned a diamond mine in South Africa, so naturally, she'd started off with a big ring. As Lance studied her tiny hands, he could see how hard it must have been for husbands two through four to keep up. What Lance couldn't surprise whether Ro-Ro was deeply connected to the dead loves of he life and wore their rings to remember them, or if she kept the jewels on her at all times simply because she needed the attention and didn't trust the help.
"You must be Julia's fella," she said, once he had settled beside her.
"Actually, ma'am, it's a little more—" "Don't contradict me, young man." "Yes, ma'am."
She looked him up and down as if she was thinking about buying him at auction. "What is your profession?" she asked. "I'm an actor."
She grunted in a way that left Lance unsure of her meaning. "I was an actress," she said, emphasis on the I, as if to infer that he was a mere impostor.
"Stage or screen?" he asked, trying to sound impressed.
Ro-Ro cut her tiny eyes toward him, insulted. "Stage, of course."
"Of course," Lance hurried to agree. "What were you in?"
Ro-Ro seemed to consider her answer very carefully before saying, "I only lived in New York for a short time before my Wally came for me and I married him. But I would have been great! They no doubt still say what a great loss it was to the theater when I married and gave up what would have been a monumental career."
Lance struggled for a response but was saved when a series of shadows appeared suddenly at his side. He looked up at a line of rayon suits and matching handbags, blue hair and knowing grins, and he could only assume that the Georgias had arrived.
"Rosemary, darling, isn't this a happy day?" the smallest of the women squealed as she leaned down and gave Ro-Ro a weak hug.
"Georgia," Ro-Ro said with a nod, barely acknowledging her subordinate.
"And you must be the young man we've all heard so much about. How do you do? I'm Georgia Abernathy. I'm a great friend of the family."
Lance stood and shook her frail hand. "Lance Collins, ma'am. Nice to meet you."
All the Georgias looked at one another and giggled. Lance guessed that he had just passed their initial test. Georgia Abernathy continued to speak, introducing Georgia Burke and Miss Georgia '54, even though Lance could have easily saved her the trouble. Between Georgia B. and Evelyn Wesley, there was very little doubt which one was the former beauty queen. The former Miss Georgia could have given women half her age a run for their money, whereas Georgia B. had probably never turned many heads, even in her youth.
While Evelyn Wesley had a waiflike presence that denoted her as a woman who had probably never been larger than a size six, Georgia Burke had the large bones and wide h*ps of a woman who'd been born to work and breed. But what Georgia B. lacked in traditional beauty, she made up for in spirit, Lance could see. When she hugged him and said, "It's so nice to meet you," Lance felt that she genuinely meant it.
"Oh, Rosemary," Miss Georgia said to Ro-Ro, "I hope you
were telling Lance about the benefit tomorrow night." She laid one of her perfectly manicured hands on his arm, "You and Julia simply must come with Rosemary. It's going to be the event of the year."
"Evelyn," Ro-Ro cut in, "to you, they are all the event of the year."
"Well," Miss Georgia carried on, "it certainly is the event of the spring. If you've never seen Sycamore Hills in the spring, it's worth coming just for that. Oh, the dogwoods and the Easter lilies and the . . . well, it's simply gorgeous! I do hope you'll be able to come." She smiled, and Lance guessed that thousands of men before him had probably had a hard time saying no to Evelyn Wesley.
But Ro-Ro didn't let him answer. "I have no tolerance for those ridiculous affairs," she said. "I will not go. No doubt my family will have no interest in going."