Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [154]
“There was also considerable language about the responsibilities for the farm trust now falling upon Aunt Queen, and then passing on to me, but this was also too complicated to follow. That Patsy would never own or control Blackwood Farm was the gist of this, and of course Patsy wouldn’t give a damn about it.
“As for the present, the pure ownership of Blackwood Farm itself, including all buildings, swamp and land, passed from Pops to me, with a grant of usufruct to Aunt Queen, meaning she could live there throughout her lifetime.
“This left me astonished. But immediately Aunt Queen explained the wisdom of it. Were she to marry, she said, her husband might try to bring a claim of ownership against the land, and this was what Pops wanted to protect against. Of course, she was seventy-eight (or so she said) and she wasn’t going to marry anyone, she remarked (Except perhaps the charming Nash Penfield. Laugh.), but Pops had to do it this way to protect me.
“But I couldn’t help but note that Patsy didn’t even have the right to live at the property, which Aunt Queen did. I kept quiet about it. Patsy would never know. And I certainly wasn’t going to put her out on the porch with her bags packed.
“Besides, with her high monthly income—some half a million—she wasn’t likely to be around much.
“What funded all of our trusts were enormous investments in such diversified instruments as railroads, international shipping, worldwide banking, precious metals and gems, foreign currencies, U.S. Treasury bills, pharmaceutical companies, mutual funds of every imaginable name and description and random stocks of all kinds, from the most conservative to the most speculative, the entire holding administered by the investment firm of Mayfair and Mayfair, in New Orleans, an arm of the law firm of Mayfair and Mayfair, which managed only a handful of very select private fortunes.
“It was quite impossible to find anyone superior to Mayfair and Mayfair when it came to investing, and it was also impossible to solicit their services today. The deal had been struck with them in 1880 between Manfred Blackwood and Julien Mayfair. And nothing but good luck and high profits had followed down to the present time.
“Since I was in love with Mona Mayfair, all this made a very favorable impression on me. But in the main it was over my head. I had always known I was well-off, and how well-off had never been a matter of concern.
“Now, when all this was complete and done, came the biggest shocker. Pops had confided to his lawyer something of which we didn’t even dream. But before we were asked to hear it, Jasmine, Clem and Lolly were invited to excuse themselves.
“Aunt Queen, on what instinct I’m not sure, asked Jasmine to remain. Lolly and Clem seemed unperturbed by this and went out immediately to sit in the parlor. Jasmine moved closer to me as though to protect me from whatever was coming.
“Our lawyer, Grady Breen, laid aside the many documents he had before him and started to speak to us with a note of sympathy in his voice that seemed genuine.
“ ‘Thomas Blackwood’ (this was Pops) ‘confided in me a secret before he died,’ he said, ‘and he made a verbal request of me as to this secret, that I advise you of it and ask of you that you do right by it. Now, as you may or may not know, there is a young lady in the backwoods hereabouts, name of Terry Sue, who has about five or six children.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Probably six children.’
“ ‘Who on earth hasn’t heard of Terry Sue?’ asked Aunt Queen with a faint smile. ‘I’m ashamed to say every Shed Man on the property knows Terry Sue. She just had another baby—.’ Now Aunt Queen looked at her watch. ‘Didn’t she? Yes, I believe she did.’
“ ‘Well, yes, she did,’ said Grady,