Family Secrets

by Judith Henry Wall

  Vanessa imagined the three of them relaying their adventure to Penelope and Lily and Beth as they all sat on the terrace enjoying the view of the French countryside. Georgiana’s photographs would be spread out on the table. Vanessa could almost feel the wineglass in her hand.

  For the first time since learning that her mother had a French lover and planned to live with him in the south of France, Vanessa felt her heart beginning to thaw. Life did go on. And she did want her mother to be happy. Happiness was so much better than unhappiness.

  Before heading up to the room, she arranged to have the rented SUV picked up at the hotel garage and checked out.

  Ellie and Georgiana were rushing around the room pulling clothes out of drawers and the closet and packing their bags, Georgiana with her cell phone tucked between her ear and shoulder as she told Freddy her “amazing news.” Their girlish exuberance reminded Vanessa of Lily and Beth packing for their trip to Europe, a thought that caused a pang of missing to dart through her breast. She wished they were going with her and their aunts to meet Hattie. Maybe she would bring her daughters out West someday soon so that they could meet their great-grandmother and experience yet another corner of the world.

  Nineteen

  SO they had agreed to come, these children of the child she gave away.

  Myrna needed to prepare her remarks for today’s meeting. And she should call the kitchen to tell Mrs. Sanchez that her coffee had gotten cold.

  But she just sat there. Stunned. Angry. When only hours before she had felt such an incredible sense of well-being. The weather was perfect. Her morning descent down the mountain to get the mail and the climb back up had been especially invigorating. She had been looking forward to today’s meeting of her company officers. And to next week’s meeting in Denver of Randall’s gubernatorial campaign committee. They had already rented the ballroom at Denver’s historic Brown Palace Hotel for the announcement event. Already the pundits were speculating that Randall would be a presidential candidate four years from now. She was approaching the pinnacle of her life. Everything she had planned for these last six decades was beginning to come to fruition. Her health was excellent. Her power and wealth vast. Her resolve unyielding. She had no doubt that she would live to see her son elected president of the United States.

  Of course, it had occurred to her over the years that the Deer Lodge baby would have grown up and probably married and had children. But when she’d escaped from the prison, she had drawn a line across her life. From that day forward, she had been a new person with a new name and new goals. And as the years went by, she had taken great pains to make sure her past would never come back to haunt her. But obviously she had failed in that endeavor.

  Ironic how things had turned out in her life. If her brother hadn’t been born with a clubfoot and her father hadn’t gone to Alaska to earn money for an operation to fix Patrick’s foot, maybe her life would have taken a different course. Maybe she would have stayed in Coal Town and married a miner. Maybe she’d be living there still—a dried-up old woman living on her Social Security checks.

  Their driver arrived at the hotel at precisely 1 p.m., and the sisters were delivered by limousine to a hangar on the back side of the Helena airport where a small, sleek jet with an eagle in flight and the words AQUILA INDUSTRIES painted on the side was waiting for them.

  A man came out of the small office, loaded the luggage onto the plane, and told them the pilots would return shortly. “Make yourself at home,” he said, indicating a bench beside a vending machine.

  Ellie pulled out her cell phone and, with it pressed to her ear, walked to the other side of the aircraft.

  Vanessa glanced at Georgiana. “Boone?”

  Georgiana shrugged.

  They sat on the bench. “Are you nervous about this trip?” Vanessa asked.

  “Why would I be nervous?”

  “We don’t even know where we’re going.”

  “That just makes it more exciting,” Georgiana said, running a hand through her unruly curls. “Just think how incredible it is that we actually are going to meet the woman who gave birth to our father. I wonder if she’s excited over the prospect of meeting three granddaughters that she never even knew she had until today. And how sad she must be to learn that the long-ago baby she was forced to give away is dead. Surely a part of her wished that he would come looking for her someday. But at least she can learn about him through us. I brought pictures of him and a copy of his obituary from the New York Times and some samples of his reporting—just in case we really did find her.”

  Vanessa leaned over and kissed Georgiana’s cheek. “That’s so thoughtful of you.”

  “I want Hattie to know what a special person he was,” Georgiana said, then paused before adding, “I miss him a lot.”

  “Me, too.” Vanessa stared at the plane that would soon be taking them to meet the mother their father never knew. “Back on Mother’s birthday, when we first saw the note from Hattie to Daddy’s Miss Vera, you said that looking for Hattie is what Daddy would expect us to do. I wasn’t so sure about that at first, but I am now. I think Daddy would be proud of us for taking this trip, don’t you?”

  When Georgiana did not respond, Vanessa realized she was watching Ellie emerge from behind the plane and march toward them, cell phone in hand.

  “Something’s wrong,” Georgiana whispered.

  Yes, judging from the scowl on Ellie’s face, Vanessa could see that something was definitely wrong.

  Ellie was staring at Georgiana as she approached. “You bitch!” she said, spitting out the words. “You little bitch!”

  The mechanic stuck his head out of the office to see what was going on, then quickly pulled it in and shut the door.

  Vanessa stood. “Hey, that’s our sister you’re talking to. What the hell is going on?”

  “Why don’t you ask her?” Ellie said, pointing an accusing finger at Georgiana. “She knew that I’d fallen for Boone and that something really special was happening between us. And then she goes and ruins it. She ruined everything.”

  For an instant, Vanessa thought that Ellie was going to attack Georgiana and stepped in between them. “All right, Ellie, you need to calm down and explain why you think she has ‘ruined everything.’ But before you go any further, I’m going to tell you something that I should have told you the day of the picnic in the park. Boone was coming on to Georgiana. You were too busy passing out food to see what was going on, but even Lily and Beth noticed it and asked me about it on the way home. And recently, he has been calling her and not the other way around.”

  “Why do you always take her side?” Ellie demanded. “Boone wouldn’t lie about something like that. He said that she called him after the picnic last fall, but he thought he’d made it clear that he wasn’t interested in seeing her. Then after he went back to his wife, she would call him at home. He and his wife weren’t getting along very well anyway, but with Georgiana calling it just made matters worse. Long story short, the reason he’s been avoiding me was because he didn’t want to come between me and my sister.”

  Vanessa glanced at Georgiana, who was shaking her head, a look of disbelief on her face.

  “Have you considered the possibility that he was involved with someone else and she dumped him?” Vanessa asked in her most conciliatory, reasonable-sounding voice. “And now he’s made up some cock-and-bull story to get back in your good graces and to get back at Georgiana because she wouldn’t have anything to do with him, which means the man is not only sleazy but malicious.”

  Vanessa realized that two men in matching blue uniforms had entered the hangar and were heading their way. “The pilots are here. We will settle this later,” she said, changing her tone from conciliatory to adamant.

  “I’m not going,” Ellie said, tears pouring down her face.

  “Come on, Ellie,” Vanessa said, putting an arm around Ellie’s trembling shoulders and guiding her away from the bench and Georgiana. “We’ve come this far. Let’
s see this Hattie thing through.”

  “No,” Ellie said, shaking her head.

  “Ladies,” one of the uniformed men called to them. “We are ready to board.”

  “Please, Ellie honey,” Vanessa implored, “don’t do something you’ll be sorry for the rest of your life.”

  “I am not going.”

  “This is all my fault,” Vanessa said. “Georgiana called the morning after the picnic to tell me that Boone had called her the night before and tried to invite himself over. She was worried about telling you herself and thought it would go down better coming from me, but I convinced her that it would be best just to let it go. I realize now that I shouldn’t have done that. I should have let you know what sort of person he was before you got any more involved with him.”

  “You’re just lying to protect her,” Ellie said, ducking from under Vanessa’s arm. “You’ve always taken her side in everything. Sweet little Georgiana who never does anything wrong.”

  “I am not lying, and neither is Georgiana,” Vanessa said, working to keep her voice even and calm. “I’m sorry if the truth hurts, but Boone is not worthy of you, Ellie. The man is a jerk, and I’ll tell him so to his face if given the chance. But if you’re hell-bent to take up with him again, I can’t stop you, but you are going with us to meet Hattie.”

  Vanessa grabbed Ellie’s hand and pulled her along as she would a balky child.

  “Is there a problem?” the pilot asked.

  Vanessa shook her head.

  “There’s no restroom on board,” he said. “I suggest you ladies use the facility here before we take off.”

  Ellie jerked her hand away from Vanessa’s grasp and marched to the restroom. She was there for a long time. The two pilots kept looking at their watches. When she finally came out, she looked pale and her eyes were swollen. But she said nothing and headed for the plane.

  The plane had only six passenger seats, three on each side with a narrow aisle down the middle. The copilot stuck his head through the curtain as the plane taxied out of the hangar onto the runway. “Fasten your seat belts,” he ordered.

  Shortly they were in the air. The noise from the engines in the small craft was so loud normal conversation was impossible, which was just as well, Vanessa decided. The altercation in the hangar had left her upset and tense. Maybe the flight would give them a chance to calm down.

  Vanessa leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She would gladly have wrung Boone’s neck. The man was scum. Thank God he showed his true colors before Ellie married him and/or had gotten pregnant by him.

  With nothing to read and too upset to doze, Vanessa was left to her thoughts, which were bothersome. She had no idea how long the flight was but found herself checking her watch every few minutes. After a time even the fabulous panorama provided by the Rocky Mountains became too much of a good thing.

  After an hour, the plane began its descent. Vanessa watched out the windows as they flew over a small city that occupied a mountain valley. Soon they were landing on a small one-runway airport.

  The pilot made a perfect landing then taxied to a stop near a modest terminal building. A sign welcomed them to Steamboat Springs. A very large person clad in jeans, a plaid shirt, and red, high-topped athletic shoes was waiting beside a shiny black Hummer.

  As they descended from the aircraft, the person approached. At first Vanessa thought this oversize individual was a man, but a substantial bosom was evident under the plaid shirt. The woman’s short brown hair was standing on end in the swift breeze. Her broad face was wearing an excited smile.

  “Welcome, ladies. Now let me guess which is which,” she said, putting a finger alongside her mouth.

  Vanessa recognized her voice. The person on the phone this morning. The woman who’d said that Hattie was her employer and best friend.

  Fascinated, Vanessa watched as the woman pointed at Ellie and said, “This must be Ellie,” which was a rather obvious guess since the newspaper article mentioned that Ellie worked for a fashion magazine and she was wearing a khaki safari outfit and carrying a zebra-print handbag.

  “And you must be Vanessa, the oldest sister,” the woman said as she pointed at Vanessa. “And that leaves Georgiana, the photographer.” She nodded in Georgiana’s direction. “And you all are really pretty,” she added with a shy smile.

  “Thank you,” Vanessa said. “And you are…?”

  “I’m Willy.” The woman touched a hand to her chest. “My real name is Wilhelmina, but everyone calls me Willy.”

  Willy helped the pilots unload the luggage and put it in the Hummer.

  Ellie climbed into the front passenger seat of the Hummer even before Willy boarded the oversize vehicle. Ellie looked straight ahead while Vanessa and Georgiana got in the backseat. “I’ve never ridden in one of these things,” Vanessa said in an attempt to take the tension down a notch or two.

  Neither of her sisters responded.

  Willy had soon left the airport far behind as she headed north on Highway 40, passing other vehicles at what seemed to Vanessa an excessive rate of speed. After a half hour or so, Willy left the highway behind and continued on a blacktop road.

  Vanessa leaned forward and asked Willy in a voice loud enough to be heard over the road noise. “Where are we exactly?”

  “In Colorado.”

  “Yes, but in what part of Colorado?”

  “The western part. The eastern part doesn’t have any mountains.”

  “What town is Hattie’s house near?” Vanessa asked, trying a different tack.

  “Closest town is a wide spot in the road named Folly for all the folks who came to these parts thinking they were going to get rich mining gold,” Willy said over her shoulder. “Not much left there now. You can buy gas and a hamburger, but that’s about all.”

  They passed an occasional mailbox beside a lane that disappeared into the pine and spruce trees. But after a time, the only sign of civilization was the road itself.

  The grade was steeper now, the road winding. Willy whipped the Hummer around the curves like a race car driver. Vanessa and Georgiana held on for dear life and exchanged apprehensive glances.

  Finally Willy turned onto a gravel road and stopped in front of a massive iron gate on which was mounted a large sign that read:

  Private Property

  Keep Out

  Trespassers Will Be Procecuted

  Willy pointed a remote opener at the gate, and slowly it swung outward in a graceful arc. She drove the Hummer through, then slowly rounded switchback after switchback as the road wound its way higher and higher up the mountain until a second iron gate, this one higher than the first, loomed in front of them. Once the gate had opened itself, they entered a spacious parking area that had either been carved into the mountain or utilized space provided by a naturally formed cavern. Willy came to a stop beside a late-model Lincoln sedan.

  One corner of the parking area was occupied by a small concrete-block building. “That’s for the security officer,” Willy said with a nod in its direction. “Myrna fired him this morning. I’m not sure why.”

  They helped Willy unload their luggage onto a cart, which she pushed toward what looked like an elevator door. Which it was. They entered its spacious interior and headed upward.

  When the elevator came to a stop, the door slid open to reveal a huge split-level living room with floor-to-ceiling windows that showcased a spectacular view of the mountainous landscape. “This is Hattie’s house?” Georgiana asked in awe.

  “Yes, this is her house,” the large woman said with pride. “She planned the house in her head for years, then finally had it built. Her and me, we used to live in Denver, and this house was where we came on weekends. But we live here all the time now. The people who run her mines and her trucking company and all the other stuff she owns come here when they need to see her.”

  “Is Hattie here now?” Georgiana asked reverently.

  Willy nodded. “You’ll see her at dinner. Her company office
rs were here for lunch and a meeting, and she still has some business things to take care of.”

  “You said on the phone this morning that Hattie has a different name now,” Vanessa said.

  “Yes. I was surprised when I saw that other name in the newspaper story. But I wasn’t supposed to say that on the phone,” Willy added, looking contrite. “She wants to explain everything to you herself.”

  Willy herded them back onto the elevator and took them up another level to their suite of rooms—a sitting area and two bedrooms. Willy said that they would have an early dinner so they could have a nice long evening with Hattie, after which a late-evening snack would be served. Once Willy had departed, Ellie said that she was going to lie down before dinner, then headed for the smaller of the two bedrooms and closed the door. “She’ll come around,” Vanessa told Georgiana. “At some level she realizes that awful man has been playing her for a fool.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Georgina said, kicking off her shoes and stretching out on the bed. “It really takes the fun out of finding Hattie, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, but I am curious to see what she’s like. Can you believe this…” Vanessa paused, searching her mind for something to call Hattie’s home. The word house seemed too conventional. “This dwelling!” she said with a wave of her hand, indicating the structure around them. “It is certainly not what comes to mind when one thinks of ‘over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go.’”

  Suddenly the door to Ellie’s room swung open, and she appeared, cell phone in hand. “My cell phone doesn’t work,” she announced.

  “You need to borrow my charger?” Georgiana asked.

  “It has a charge.”

  Georgiana pulled her phone from her purse and switched it on. “It says ‘no service.’ I wonder why.”

  “Because we’re in the middle of no place,” Vanessa said, checking her own phone, “and there probably aren’t enough people for the cellular companies to bother with.” She looked around the room for a regular telephone. There was none. “Is there a phone in your room?” she asked Ellie.