Page 29

"Who knows. She didn't like me the moment she set her eyes on me, and I didn't like her much neither. I don't trust her as far as I could kick her." "Aunt Fanny!"

"Ma," Luke warned.

"All right," she mumbled.

"All set for graduation, Luke?" I asked, trying to sound cheerful. I would miss my own graduation.

"Three days to go." He ran his forefinger over his throat to suggest it would be a disaster. "This is the first time I'll be doing something really important without you at my side encouraging and supporting me, Annie."

It was wonderful to hear him tell me I was as important to him as I hoped I would always be, but I knew he would do well even though I wasn't beside him. There were few young men his age as capable as he was when it came to a challenge or a responsibility. Our teachers loved it when he volunteered to do something, because they knew they didn't have to be on his back the way they had to with most teenage boys.

"You're going to do fine, Luke. I just know you will. I wish I could be there to hear it," I said, my eyes telling him just how much I wished it.

"He keeps makin' the speech ta the trees in the back of the house, but I ain't heard no applause yit," Fanny interjected. Luke scowled. He was growing impatient with her and so was I. "Well, I'll tell ya this, Annie. If those snobs in Winnerrow don't give Luke a standin' ovation--"

"Ma, I asked you--"

"He's only worried I won't behave and give them snooty people somethin' more ta talk about," she explained. Then she paced around, her voice growing louder as she worked herself up. "Luke, git me that chair over there, the one Annie's nurse was layin' eggs on."

I looked to the door quickly to see if Mrs. Broadfield had returned and overheard any of this. She had apparently decided to stay away until my aunt left.

Luke brought the chair over for her and she sat down, taking her hat off carefully and placing it at the foot of my bed. She had her hair pinned back neatly. I did think there was something different about her, a new, more serious look in her blue eyes. She fixed her gaze on me intently for a moment, pressing her lips together, and then took my hand.

"Annie, honey, I've been doin' a lot of thinkin' lately, nothin' but thinkin'. Right, Luke?"

"That's all she's been doing," Luke said sarcastically. Aunt Fanny saw the way we were looking at one another.

"I'm serious here."

"Okay, Aunt Fanny. I'm listening. Go on." I folded my hands under my breasts and sat back against the pillows. My legs were still like two dead appendages. I had to shift them from side to side with my hands, and twice a day Mrs. Broadfield had to massage them and work them up and down.

"I decided that I would move into Hasbrouck House while yer recuperatin', jist ta be sure it's kept up properly and those servants do what they're paid ta do. I'll take one of the guest rooms. There's enough of 'em, and whenever Luke comes back from college ta visit, he can take one of the others."

"I'm starting college this summer," he explained. "Harvard has a summer program that I can enter, and my full-tuition scholarship applies to that as well."

"That's wonderful, Luke. But Aunt Fanny, have you told Drake your plans?"

"I don't see as I hafta get Drake's permission fer anythin' I do. I got certain rights and obligations. Ma own lawya's been goin' over the wills. Yer motha was kind to me, Annie, and I feel I have an obligation here. Nobody's goin' ta tell me different, not Drake, and certainly not Tony Tatterton."

"I don't see why Tony would object anyway, Aunt Fanny."

"Well, Drake's still finishin' college, and since no one's sayin' I'm not the oldest livin' relative here, I'm goin' to do what has ta be done fer ma family. Drake will be away; yer goin' ta be away; someone's gotta take charge. Heaven would want me to do it, I'm sure."

"I don't mind you and Luke moving into Hasbrouck House, Aunt Fanny. I appreciate what you want to do."

"Well thank ya, Annie, honey. That's sweet of ya ta say. Ain't that sweet of her, Luke?"

"Yes," Luke said, staring at me the way he did that day after he had told me what Aunt Fanny did to his acceptance letter from Harvard. I felt myself blush, and swung my eyes back to Aunt Fanny quickly.

"I only wish ya was comin' back ta yer own home ta recuperate, Annie, instead a goin' off ta that big stone house ta live amongst strangers. I could take jist as good care'a ya as that leather-fa

ced nurse Tony Tatterton hired. Bet she's expensive, too. Anyway, yer motha was never happier than when she was livin' in Winnerrow. When she was older and rich, I mean. 'Least, that's what I think."

"Why, Aunt Fanny?" I wondered how much of the secret past she knew.

"She didn't like all them beantown phonies," she said quickly. "And she had some bad times with that loony granny'a hers. Tony, too. Everybody always mixin' everyone else up till a person didn't know who him or her was. She killed herself, ya know," she stated flatly and cast a fish-eye on me.

"I thought that was an accident, Aunt Fanny."