Queen Never Cry novel · Chapter 14 of 32

Chapter 14: Page Two

Hester was sitting at her kitchen table in her dressing gown when we got there at twenty to five.

The laundromat below was dark, and the dryers had stopped.

She had made a pot of tea and put out three cups.

"Mr. Mercer," she said. "Sit. You're family enough for this."

Garret sat by the hot plate, very quietly.

I stayed on my feet.

"What is it?"

"Sit down, Pippa."

"I'd rather stand."

"I'd rather you didn't fall."

I sat.

My grandmother picked up her cane from where it leaned against the table.

She put her thumb under the silver duck's head and twisted.

It came off with a small click.

The shaft was hollow, and inside lay a roll of yellowed paper no thicker than a pencil.

"Tobias made this cane for me in nineteen eighty-eight," she said. "He was proud of the trick."

"I have carried this paper in it since the morning after your sentencing."

She unrolled it on the table, and flattened it with the edge of her hand.

It was a single typed page, with Tobias's signature at the bottom and two stamps from a notary.

Across the top it said, PAGE TWO OF THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF TOBIAS CORRIGAN.

"There were always two pages," Hester said. "The lawyer read only the first at the funeral, because Tobias told him to."

"He said, Show the second only if the day comes."

I looked at the paper.

My grandfather's voice came up out of the typing, dry and brisk.

I read it twice.

The words did not hold still.

Should my granddaughter Philippa decline or disclaim any part of her inheritance, that part shall pass to her children, in trust.

The trust shall last until the youngest is twenty-one.

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