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She stared and then shook her head and smiled.

"What did he say when he found out? I mean, what did he want to do?"

"He wanted to get to know me more," I replied. "He told his wife all about me just before I left England and he said she was okay with it, too, but he didn't talk about sowing wild oats," I added. She ignored my sarcasm. "How did he look?"

"Terrific," I said. "He's a very successful English professor, highly respected, and he has two beautiful children, a daughter and a son. Just like you, only his daughter is the older child and they are both very well behaved."

She nodded, her eyes distant. She looked like she really had been in love with him once and I had stirred up all those old memories. After a moment her eyes seemed to click back to the present. She took a deep breath.

"You're an amazing young woman," she said. "That's why I know we're all going to get through this. For some time Victoria has been in a rage about Mother including you in the estate, as you know. She has been trying to get Grant to do something about it, but he doesn't want to make a big legal issue. He rightly thinks that it will bring a great deal of unnecessary and unpleasant attention to our family?'

"Is he still trying to become president of the United States?" I asked out of the side of my mouth.

"He's ambitious and I wouldn't put it past him to run for high office soon," she admitted.

I stopped and turned to her.

"All right, Mother," I said. "What do you want from me? Let's just get it out and over with, okay?"

"Well, we know that my mother . . ." She shook her head, smiling, "my mother created a situation that would make it all very difficult for us. She has apparently left you title to fifty-one percent of the house and property, the remaining forty-nine percent divided between Victoria and me. She left you fifty percent of the business, and she has left you what amounts to nearly two million dollars in investments that pay good dividends."

My breath caught in my throat. It would have taken Mama and anyone in her family twenty lifetimes to come close to my fortune, a fortune I had inherited almost overnight.

"Of course," my mother continued, "it's shocking. Victoria wants us to challenge the will and take it through court to get a judge to invalidate it. She claims my mother was not in her right mind at the time. Grant says there could be a serious challenge to the will and while that was going on, of course, your life would be in limbo, Rain.

"So what Grant wants to propose is we compromise. We'll set aside a quarter of a million dollars for you in an account and you could then be your own person and do whatever you wanted with your life. Victoria would be satisfied. Well, not really, but we could shut her up, and everyone could go on with their life. What do you think?"

My eyes were so full of tears, I could barely see her. Wasn't there even a tiny speck of a motherly instinct in her for me? Was Grandmother Hudson's death and the aftermath only an opportunity to rid herself of me forever?

I should take this ugly deal, I thought, and turn my back on this miserable family. I should just return to England immediately and make my own life there, maybe close to my real father, who at least wasn't looking for every opportunity possible to deny my existence.

"Rain?"

I turned and looked out over the lake. What would Grandmother Hudson say to all this? What would she expect me to do?

I recalled the day I had left her. Every moment, every second of that good-bye, lingered in my mind vividly. I was so concerned then that it would be the last time we would be together and I had been right. She had looked into my face with such hope and said, "I was afraid there was nobody in my family with a sense of propriety and the grit to do the right things. Don't disappoint me."

"Grandmother Hudson had a reason for what she did," I began and turned slowly to face my mother. "I made her certain promises, promises she will expect me to keep, even now, maybe even more now than ever. I wouldn't change a comma in her will," I said defiantly.

My mother looked shocked. Obviously she had been so confident she would convince me to do what Grant had wanted.

"But Rain, look at what will happen. Victoria won't give up easily and ..."

"Somehow," I said smiling, "I think your husband will be able to convince her."

She just stared. I smiled and she shook her head. "You really are like her," she said angrily.

"That, Mother, was the best compliment you could ever have given me."

She nodded, turned and started back toward the house. I took a deep breath.

I was afraid.

My whole body trembled. I had no idea what I was going to do or how I

would defend myself, but I was on Grandmother Hudson's land and I was in her house and her words still echoed inside me.

This wouldn't be easy, I thought as I started back, too. "So?" I could hear Grandmother Hudson reply. "When has anything ever been easy for you, Rain?"