Bitter Business

favorite waiter, arrived with our entrées. I eyed my veal cutlet suspiciously. I ventured a cautious bite—tasteless but otherwise unobjectionable.
    “Peaches has actually shown a lot of backbone through all of this,” continued Daniel, cutting into his steak, “but about a month ago she reached the point where even she’d had enough.”
    “Why? What happened?”
    “Like so many family crises, the whole thing started out as what should have been a happy occasion. When Jack and Peaches got married they did it very quietly— just the family down at Tall Pines—that’s their place down in Georgia. So this past February, when their first anniversary rolled around, Dagny decided to throw them a party. She invited everybody—friends, customers,
    Peaches’s family even came in from Atlanta. There were well in excess of a hundred guests.
    “Dagny is the sort of person who does everything well and that night was no exception. It should have been a wonderful evening—especially for Jack. His favorite daughter had gone out of her way to do something special for him and his beautiful wife. Despite what happened, you could tell he was really touched.”
    “So what happened?”
    “For their anniversary Jack gave Peaches a diamond necklace that he’d given to Eleanor, his first wife, on their first anniversary. Naturally, Peaches wore it to the party.”
    “And when Lydia saw it she went ballistic.”
    “You could say that. I honestly thought there would be murder done. Lydia arrived late to the party, as usual. Arthur was out of town and I gather there was some sort of problem with the twins—with Lydia there’s always something. Anyway, the party was in full swing by the time she got there and the first thing she did was go off in search of her father to give him her best wishes. I’ll tell you, Kate, when she laid eyes on that necklace around her stepmother’s neck, her hostility was like an electrical current running across the room.”
    “What did she do?”
    “She made the biggest, loudest, ugliest scene I have ever witnessed, and I have witnessed some doozies. Fortunately, Dagny had the presence of mind to collar her brothers, and between the three of them they managed to get Lydia out of there before the evening was totally ruined. As it was, everyone was shaken up. Lydia’s behavior was frightening. She was so completely out of control it was almost like she was having a seizure. She was literally foaming at the mouth as Philip and Eugen bundled her out the door.”
    “Wow.”
    “So now you understand why Jack thinks that Lydia started this business about selling her shares in order to get attention.”
    “More like revenge, I’d say.”
    Daniel sighed and laid down his knife and fork, shaking his head slowly in some unshared recollection.
    “None of this would have happened if Jimmy had lived,” he whispered.
    “Who’s Jimmy?” I asked.
    “Jack and Eleanor’s oldest son.”
    “I thought Philip was the oldest. You mean there was another brother? What happened to him?”
    “He died. Afterward it changed everything for the Cavanaughs.” Daniel touched his napkin to his lips and then replaced it in his lap, smoothing it carefully before picking up the story.
    “Jack has a plantation down in Georgia—the story is that his father won the land in a poker game, but who knows? It doesn’t matter. When Superior started making! a little bit of money, Jack built a house on it for Eleanor.! She was a Georgia girl who missed the South, and besides, he loves to hunt. They named it Tall Pines.”
    “What was she like? Eleanor, I mean.”
    “She was a beautiful, old-fashioned woman and Jack just worshiped her. She ran the house, raised the children, gave her time to the church, and instead of complaining that he was never there, counted herself lucky to have a husband who worked hard to make a success of his business. When he came home she treated him like a king. He was obviously devastated when she died. I think he stayed drunk for an entire year.”
    “And Jimmy was their oldest?” I prompted.
    “Yes. He had just turned thirteen when his mother died. Philip was twelve, Dagny ten, and Eugene nine. Lydia, of course, was just a few days old. A nice, big, Catholic family. Eleanor is buried down at Tall Pines. So is Jimmy.”
    “How old was he when he died?”
    “Seventeen. It is such a shame. He was a wonderful young man. Smart, athletic, a natural leader...”
    “How did he