Bad Girl Blues

by Brenda Barrett

  And this was another first for him. Apparently doctor and Benedict held no appeal to Brigid.

  He sped down the hill, maneuvering the corners in a reckless manner until he encountered traffic at Manor Park. His phone rang and he almost didn't answer. Who could it be now? He pulled over at the gas station and his grandfather's gruff voice sounded in his ear.

  "Nick, come over here. I have something to show you."

  He hung up before Nick could respond. Nick sighed. His grandfather, Sir Felix Benedict, was getting more and more overbearing as the days went by. He tried to accommodate the old man as much as possible but he was getting tired of his grandfather's almost obsessive concern about him carrying on the Benedict line.

  Retirement was not sitting well with Felix. And Nick suspected that he was lonely too; he had never gotten over his twin brother's death ten years ago. Burford had died of pneumonia. He hadn't even been sick long. It was sudden and unexpected and his grandfather, his closest friend, business partner and family member, had taken his death hard. He had retired soon after that and had become increasingly agitated over the lack of males born into the family.

  Between him and Burford they had eight sons and four daughters. Six children apiece, but not one of the twelve children had produced sons.

  His aunts Patricia and Helen were childless and his cousins Beatrice and Bernadette had one girl each. His other uncles and male cousins either had one or two children, all girls.

  It was worrying for his grandfather, who had gradually seen his grandchildren married into other families and adopting other people's names. He had taken an unhealthy interest in Nick's love life and it was considered endearing and funny among his family members.

  Unfortunately, Nick did not find it so and if he had not recently seen his grandfather coughing his life out after a brief bout of pneumonia, he would have ignored him. Nick was mindful of the fact that his granduncle Burford had died from pneumonia and it worried him that his grandfather might go the same way, so for now he was willing to put up with his grandfather’s shenanigans. On a certain level he could understand his grandfather's concern that his name and legacy could go up in flames.

  He arrived at his grandfather's place a few minutes later. He parked beside a strange red car. His grandfather must have visitors. He walked up the familiar driveway, past Grandmother's favorite hanging orchids, and knocked on the front door.

  His aunt Helen answered, a fierce frown on her face.

  "Nick, make him stop."

  Nick sighed. It seemed as if he had stepped into one of the regular family feuds between his aunt and her father.

  His aunt had lived in the pool-house at her parent’s house for years, ever since her doctors deemed her incapable of functioning without supervision. Apparently she had had several psychotic episodes when she was younger, which had left her almost incapable of taking care of herself. She had to be forced to take her medication even now that she was in her forties.

  Nick looked at her and gave her a hug. "Okay, I am here to stop your big bad dad from hurting you. What has he done now?"

  "He is saying bad things about me to that lady who is ugly on the inside," Helen whispered. "I don't like her inside, Nick."

  Her eyes looked wild and Nick knew instinctively that she hadn't taken her medication for a while.

  The upside was that his aunt would paint lovely pictures with painstaking details without the meds; the downside was that she would lose her handle on reality. Sometimes she even blacked out for days/weeks and was catatonic.

  "Okay, I'll set him straight." Nick moved into the living room with Helen clutching him like a child.

  His grandfather had a visitor. Nick could see a woman, a sophisticated looking woman who looked very familiar. Josephine Fearon. Luca's ex.

  Nick almost groaned aloud. His grandfather was really reaching now. He had thought that his grandfather had a type: very young girls from wealthy families. Now it looked as if he was changing tactics.

  He greeted them and before he could sit down his grandfather took center stage.

  "You know Josephine here has several businesses. She is rich in her own right and she loves children."

  Not according to Luca, Nick wanted to point out.

  Josephine was looking at him with interest. Nick couldn't understand why she was going along with this obvious attempt of his grandfather's to snare a bride for him.

  Nick cleared his throat uncomfortably. Maybe he should just get married to avoid this kind of situation. He was embarrassed for himself and for the ladies that his grandfather occasionally put on display for his benefit. He felt as if his grandfather was teetering on the edge of another culture or another time.

  And for the life of him he couldn't think of anybody he would remotely like to get married to, except for Brigid.

  Now that he had put it in his mind the thought wouldn't stop, but Brigid was Thomas' girlfriend and a marriage between them was out of the question. Maybe for the next few years he would have to endure more of this madness to soothe his grandfather's increasing paranoia that his lineage was dying off.

  "Come and look at my paintings, Nicky," his aunt said in her childish voice. "I made one for you."

  Nick got up and excused himself.

  His grandfather bellowed, "Nick, I was talking! I don't see why you are entertaining Helen and her little scribblings."

  "They are not scribblings," Helen pouted, "they are real art. I make real art for Nicky."

  Josephine got up too. "I would love to see them too, if you don't mind."

  Helen stiffened. "No Nicky, she's ugly on the inside!"

  "Sorry," Nick mouthed to Josephine.

  Josephine nodded. She understood that Helen was not mentally sound. She wondered what the story was. The Benedicts never spoke about her publicly.

  "No she's not, Helen," Nick said soothingly. "Let her see the paintings for me."

  "Okay. But only for you Nicky." Helen peered at Josephine and then grabbed Nick's hands.

  *****

  "These are beautiful," Josephine said as she walked around Helen's studio. "How much does she sell them for?"

  "She doesn’t," Nick said as his aunt Helen took a painting of a hibiscus off her easel and handed it to Nick. "Take good care of it, Nicky."

  "I will. Thanks Helen."

  "Wow," Josephine said. "That one is gorgeous."

  Nick smiled when Helen sat before an unfinished work on her easel. It was of another painting of a baby. Helen was obsessed with two things, painting babies or painting pictures of contrast.

  Josephine stopped at a painting of a baby in swaddling clothes; beside that was one of a well-dressed woman standing in the midst of a garbage-strewn street.

  "She is gifted."

  "She is," Nick said. He looked at his aunt. "She can't be disturbed now; she is gone off into her own little world. I must find a place to hang this."

  "You are a lucky guy," Josephine said, looking at the picture.

  Nick smiled. "Sorry about my grandfather and the whole matchmaking thing."

  Josephine nodded. "It's okay."

  "No." Nick shook his head. "It's not but I don't know how to stop him. Besides, I like somebody else."

  "Ah." Josephine smiled. "Now I get it. You should tell him about her."

  Nick smiled faintly. "I don't think so."

  "So is she unsuitable or something?" Josephine probed. "Your grandfather is a tough man to please."

  Nick laughed. "Unsuitable, I doubt that." He pictured the pure lines of Brigid's face. "No, she's just unavailable."

  Chapter Nine

  "Your mother said you went to Rizzle. I called the house because you were not answering your cell phone," Caitlin said when they met up at the shopping center on Tuesday evening.

  Caitlin had asked her to help her pick out an outfit for Lux Magazine’s annual dinner.

  Brigid was in the aisle looking over a multi-colored maxi dress that had sequins at the front.

 
"Yes, that's right," she replied to Caitlin, who was looking through a clothes rack across from her.

  "What did you eat?" Caitlin asked, bending her neck to look at the price tag of a dress that she liked.

  "Chicken, some pasta thing, and a salad," Brigid replied, tensing up for the big question. Caitlin was so predictable. She was wondering now if this dress shopping expedition was just to ferret out information from her about her latest adventures. She had been a bit tightlipped and distant with her sisters over the last week because she didn't want their opinion on her life. She knew she wasn't going to like what they would have to say.

  "Who did you go with?" Caitlin asked, looking at her with one eyebrow raised.

  "Thomas Kellier." Brigid pretended that she didn't know that that was the question that was coming next.

  "Thomas Kellier? The producer?" Caitlin hissed, "Brigid Manderson. You need to tell me exactly what is going on."

  "Why?" Brigid frowned, pretending to look at another dress.

  "Because I know you," Caitlin said ominously. "I lived with you for a good part of your life. Of everybody in the world, I know you best. I can sense when you are hiding something. I can sense when things are not right with you, and this is one of those times."

  "And...you discussed it with Casey and Hazel and they sent you to find out what is going on." Brigid wagged her finger at Caitlin. "You guys are so obvious. I am so sorry I never made it to our regular meeting last week. Okay, I'll tell you. It's not a big secret. I like somebody."

  "That is not going to work as a decoy." Caitlin shook her head. "You are going to have to do better than that. You have liked guys before."

  Brigid moved closer to Caitlin. They were the only ones in the formal dress section, but she kept her voice low. "I have a huge thing for Nick Benedict and I am dating his cousin, Thomas Kellier."

  "Dating as work? As in escort work?" Caitlin asked, a look of chagrin on her face. "Nick Benedict, as in one of Patricia's relatives? We need to sit down and discuss this."

  She dragged Brigid to the food court downstairs and they sat around a table with Caitlin looking at Brigid reprovingly. "Start from the top."

  Brigid told her about her attraction to Nick, the fact that he was her lecturer, and her agreement with Sonia to be Thomas Kellier's girlfriend for the summer.

  Caitlin's eyes kept widening wider and wider. Brigid was finding it almost comical.

  "You promised you wouldn't work for Sonia anymore," Caitlin said accusingly. "You said..."

  "I know what I said," Brigid interrupted, "but I need the money. Sonia and I struck a deal. This date for the summer and she pays for my summer school and a year of med school. That's huge. By this time next week, I will have made enough money for an entire year of med school!"

  Caitlin drummed her fingers on the table. "I don't like it. You are becoming like one of those bad girls. You know the type. I hope you are not considering living with that man."

  Brigid chuckled. "I am far from being a bad girl, Caitlin, and no, I am not considering living with Thomas Kellier. I might have thought about his offer for a micro-second but there is the attraction to Nick to consider—and the fact that I am not attracted to Thomas is a huge issue."

  "And if you lived with Thomas you would not stand a chance with Nick," Caitlin warned. "Nick Benedict is a Christian. I recently started going to St John's Chapel. I see him there. The Benedicts have a whole pew for themselves."

  "Really?" Brigid said morosely. "Well, good for them. Further confirmation that I don't stand a chance with him anyway."

  "Would you like a chance?" Caitlin asked slyly.

  "Maybe after the summer when he is not my lecturer and I am no longer being paid by his cousin to go out with him, and my family history can be wiped clean of some secret so dastardly it sent my mother to do drugs. Maybe if he never discovers that I was a crack baby, my mother was a prostitute or that I have no idea who my father is. Yup, maybe then we could date."

  Caitlin giggled. "I had no idea you were so insecure. Well, I knew you had a chip on your shoulder about the whole father thing and Sonia's past prostitute thing but this is ridiculous. Nick is living in the twenty-first century. Seriously, what guy in his right mind would refuse to date a girl like you because of her family or lack thereof, or what her family does?"

  "Can you honestly see Nick and Sonia socializing?" Brigid asked, frowning. "It would be a disaster, and have you ever seen a Benedict with a regular wife or husband from the masses? Even Patricia married a guy in her own class. And she is Patricia, patron saint of the orphans."

  "Stop it!" Caitlin hissed. "Patricia is not to be mentioned in this pity fest. She is not class prejudiced one bit and you know that."

  "Are you seriously that naive?" Brigid asked, "Think about it; we know practically all of the Benedicts because of Patricia. They are society people. They live in their posh houses and love other posh people. Name one of them who married an ordinary person."

  Caitlin shook her head. "I really can't but I don't know them all. When did you get so hung up about class and that kind of thing? We are all equal in God’s sight.”

  "Yeah right," Brigid interjected. "Unlike you, Caity, I don't view life through rose-tinted glasses. All men are equal in God's sight, not society's sight. We all judge people based on what they have or who they are related to or their jobs. Even you."

  "You know what?" Caitlin said, "Come to St. John’s with me. It's a nice church. It's close to where you live."

  Brigid sighed. "I don't know, Caitlin. That's where all the rich people go to church. Dr. this and lawyer that, the movers and shakers of society. I am not worthy...yet."

  Caitlin chuckled. "I want you to just come to the church to worship God. In the process you'll see that they are ordinary people who hopefully love the Lord."

  "Maybe, one day," Brigid said contemplatively. "I do miss church fellowship. Even Sonia was asking why I don't go to church as regularly as before. She volunteers at a First Missionaries place of safety."

  "Really?" Caitlin nodded. "Imagine that. There is still hope for the she-devil. Anyway, I need a commitment from you to come to church with me."

  "Stop trying to evangelize me, Caity."

  "No. No," Caitlin said, shaking her head vigorously. "If I were evangelizing, I would remind you of how Jesus was your first love and how we made that solemn promise in our baptismal vows that we would trust Him and stay true to Him.

  "Remember when we were fifteen? We were so determined then that we would be good Christians.

  "I would remind you that he promised to supply all our needs according to his riches in glory and that…" she paused for effect, "you do not have to lean unto your own understanding because he said he'd direct your path.

  "This escort business thing is leaning to your own understanding. God has a million and one ways to work things out for you that you cannot see. There was no need to rush into this unholy deal with Sonia. To be honest, you, my dearest sister, have lost your way. You need to ask God to guide you again."

  Caitlin paused. "Well, at least that is what I would tell you if I were to preach to you or erm...evangelize."

  Brigid swallowed. Caitlin had laid it on thick. It was similar to the same speech she had given her when she had told her that she was going to live with Sonia.

  As usual, Caity was right. She had started this escort thing because of her single-minded determination to be a doctor. And the escort business became the only way she could think of to pay for med school. Maybe she wouldn't have considered something like it if she had not lived with Sonia.

  And she was mindful that she hadn't consulted God about medical school or how she would go about accomplishing it with no budget and no scholarship. She had just gone headlong into everything without any divine leading.

  Usually for her, that spelt trouble.

  Caity was no longer looking at her; she was allowing Brigid to digest her speech.

  Brigid sighed. "I want to become a doctor. It
is the profession that I chose because it would lend me some respectability, some class. People respect doctors. They don't care what their beginnings were."

  Caitlin raised her brows. "You are respectable; you have class. You never used to be so hung up about your beginnings or any of this class nonsense until you started living with Sonia. All of a sudden you are obsessed with it. That woman has a lot to answer for."

  "It's not just her," Brigid said beseechingly. "When I saw how Casey got to know her history, it really made me think about my biological family and all of that. I want to know something about them. Sonia said there was a family secret. I want to know what it is. I want to know my father. What if he's as nice as Casey's father and has been looking for me for years?"

  "What if he's not?" Caitlin asked. "Have you thought of that?"

  "You don't understand." Brigid sighed. "You don't get it because you know who your parents were, and you grew up with the assurance that they were good people who have passed on good traits."

  "You have a lot going on," Caitlin said soothingly. "Why don't you relax. It's not too late to take all your cares to Jesus in prayer. He can still work out your med school situation. Your latest job situation, if we can call it that. Your love life situation. Your father situation and all of that." Caitlin grabbed her hands and squeezed them. "I will pray for you too, and don't forget whose guiding hand has brought you this far."

  "This is overkill, Caitlin." Brigid gritted her teeth. "I get it! Sometimes I wish you weren't such a goody two-shoes." She softened her voice though. "Thank you for the prayers. I may not be able to stand you sometimes when you go into preachy mode, but you do make sense and you make me think."

  *****

  Wednesday.

  Brigid forced herself to go to class with a sense of foreboding. She was going to see Nick after the totally explosive and still vivid Monday evening where his cousin asked her to live with him and Nick had told her that he liked her and she had turned him down.