close growing up,” I said.
Harry looked a little wistful, taking a few moments before answering. “We used to say that we were brothers from different mothers. My father was the landscaper at the manor before me, and we had a place where I still live next to the gardening shed on the grounds.”
I must have grimaced slightly at the medieval allusion of serfs working the land for their lords and ladies.
Harry apparently caught it, and he laughed soundly. “I’m not sure what image your imagination just conjured up, but it was a great way to grow up. I had a wonderful little apartment, and all those acres to explore when I wasn’t in school. It was just about ideal. For me, anyway,” he added as Lynette brought our teas to us.
“Give us a minute before we order anything else, would you?” Harry asked her, and she slipped quietly away. Before she left, though, I caught a glimpse of the way she looked at him when he wasn’t aware of it. The woman was clearly in love, but it looked as though Harry didn’t have a clue. I wasn’t going to bring it up now, but maybe later, if the opportunity presented itself. Jake and Momma both thought that I meddled too much in the lives around me, but how could I just stand idly by while people made mistakes they weren’t even aware of?
“Are you implying that James had a rough childhood?” I asked.
Harry took a deep drink of his tea, killing nearly half of it, and the ever vigilant Lynette brought us two cute little plastic pitchers for our refills. Harry smiled at her as she did, and I thought she was going to explode, but she managed to contain it and went back to her station.
After he’d taken another drink, he said, “When we were kids, we both loved living there, but about the time we hit high school, Jim changed.”
“What happened?” Grace asked him.
“He wrote a report for our English class about his family history. We all wrote our own, but some of the things Jim found out were not good. He discovered the source of his family’s money and power, and he was never the same after that.”
“He took it that hard?” I asked.
Harry nodded solemnly. “By the time we graduated, he’d made up his mind that he never wanted to have anything to do with any of it again, and there was no convincing him otherwise. I talked to him until I was blue in the face, but he wouldn’t change his mind. He was going to give his fortune away and move to the mountains. Heck, I was just about ready to follow him, but Dad was determined that I go away for two years to study horticulture after high school, so that was out as far as I was concerned. I couldn’t bring myself to go against him, especially since I’ve always loved the gardens.”
“Did James actually leave then?” I asked.
“He did after he got tired of fighting them all. Evidently the money he’d inherited on his eighteenth birthday wasn’t really his to give away. It was all tied up in some kind of trust or something like that, and he could get the interest, but not the main chunk of it. The funny thing was he used the money he did get from the trust to hire a lawyer to help him do what he wanted to legally.”
“What happened?”
Harry shrugged. “It was tied up as tight as he’d feared.”
“What did he do when he found out he couldn’t touch it?” I asked.
“He got out of here as fast as he could go. He’d been accepted at Stanford on a full academic scholarship, so he left for California and never looked back. At least not right away.” He refilled his tea glass with one of the pitchers, and then asked, “Would you two mind if I eat while we talk? I only have so much time before I have to get back.”
“That sounds good,” I said. “If you let it be our treat. After all, we’re the ones benefiting from this.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Harry said with a reckless smile.
“Anything you’d recommend? We’re hungry, too.”
Harry stared at us for a few seconds, and then he asked,
Harry looked a little wistful, taking a few moments before answering. “We used to say that we were brothers from different mothers. My father was the landscaper at the manor before me, and we had a place where I still live next to the gardening shed on the grounds.”
I must have grimaced slightly at the medieval allusion of serfs working the land for their lords and ladies.
Harry apparently caught it, and he laughed soundly. “I’m not sure what image your imagination just conjured up, but it was a great way to grow up. I had a wonderful little apartment, and all those acres to explore when I wasn’t in school. It was just about ideal. For me, anyway,” he added as Lynette brought our teas to us.
“Give us a minute before we order anything else, would you?” Harry asked her, and she slipped quietly away. Before she left, though, I caught a glimpse of the way she looked at him when he wasn’t aware of it. The woman was clearly in love, but it looked as though Harry didn’t have a clue. I wasn’t going to bring it up now, but maybe later, if the opportunity presented itself. Jake and Momma both thought that I meddled too much in the lives around me, but how could I just stand idly by while people made mistakes they weren’t even aware of?
“Are you implying that James had a rough childhood?” I asked.
Harry took a deep drink of his tea, killing nearly half of it, and the ever vigilant Lynette brought us two cute little plastic pitchers for our refills. Harry smiled at her as she did, and I thought she was going to explode, but she managed to contain it and went back to her station.
After he’d taken another drink, he said, “When we were kids, we both loved living there, but about the time we hit high school, Jim changed.”
“What happened?” Grace asked him.
“He wrote a report for our English class about his family history. We all wrote our own, but some of the things Jim found out were not good. He discovered the source of his family’s money and power, and he was never the same after that.”
“He took it that hard?” I asked.
Harry nodded solemnly. “By the time we graduated, he’d made up his mind that he never wanted to have anything to do with any of it again, and there was no convincing him otherwise. I talked to him until I was blue in the face, but he wouldn’t change his mind. He was going to give his fortune away and move to the mountains. Heck, I was just about ready to follow him, but Dad was determined that I go away for two years to study horticulture after high school, so that was out as far as I was concerned. I couldn’t bring myself to go against him, especially since I’ve always loved the gardens.”
“Did James actually leave then?” I asked.
“He did after he got tired of fighting them all. Evidently the money he’d inherited on his eighteenth birthday wasn’t really his to give away. It was all tied up in some kind of trust or something like that, and he could get the interest, but not the main chunk of it. The funny thing was he used the money he did get from the trust to hire a lawyer to help him do what he wanted to legally.”
“What happened?”
Harry shrugged. “It was tied up as tight as he’d feared.”
“What did he do when he found out he couldn’t touch it?” I asked.
“He got out of here as fast as he could go. He’d been accepted at Stanford on a full academic scholarship, so he left for California and never looked back. At least not right away.” He refilled his tea glass with one of the pitchers, and then asked, “Would you two mind if I eat while we talk? I only have so much time before I have to get back.”
“That sounds good,” I said. “If you let it be our treat. After all, we’re the ones benefiting from this.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Harry said with a reckless smile.
“Anything you’d recommend? We’re hungry, too.”
Harry stared at us for a few seconds, and then he asked,
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