He rented a van and drove up to Hennie’s. This time he noticed all the cars parked out front. The first time he came he was in a fog and didn’t notice anything until he went inside and saw all the people. “I’m sure she’s invited everyone, so don’t be surprised if the house is full,” he said as they got out the van and Joy had made one of her special desserts, a peach pie, since Royce said, “She wants us to come for dinner this Saturday,” and she’d carried that peach pie on her lap the whole flight and on the van ride. And he’d tried to explain to the children who they were, but he was having a hard time of it since no one knew they existed, and he knew he couldn’t start broadcasting all over Texas his father had a mistress and she had seven children by him and here are my brothers and sisters! That wouldn’t be fair to them, so he let it go at, “They are very dear friends of my father’s.”
They walked up to the house and rang the bell and when the door opened there were lots of people, the house was full of adults and children, all standing with smiles on their faces to welcome them, and this time all his siblings were there. “I thought you might like to meet Wallace, Collette and Warren,” Hennie said, and Joy was struck too by how much they resembled her children, Wallace and Justin could have easily been father and son.
“Oh my, you have a beautiful family, a beautiful family,” Hennie said and after that they sat at a full table and talked and ate until they were full and Joy felt like she was at home at one of their family reunions and the house and Hennie’s green thumb reminded her of her mother. Joy smiled and Hennie’s family welcomed them and the accents got to them, so much so that Thomas teased one of the girls, “Toya remember he’s your cousin,” and the room erupted.
Dillon came back from England on a cloud. He went straight to the ranch and took Shanice with him and he introduced her to his family, “This is my wife,” he said to his mother, uncle, grandmother and Karen. They’d gotten married in England; Shanice loved the idea of always saying they’d gotten married in England. She’d found a little English garden and Deon and his girlfriend, a beautiful African girl from Kenya, and Lindsey and her boyfriend Amar stood up for them. But at the ranch Dillon stood in front of his family and held her hand and said, “I love her and if anyone has any problems with it I will take her and you will never see us again. I will not be like dad and come back, I will disappear forever and none of you will ever see us again,” and all of them looked at him perplexed.
“Dillon why would we hurt you? Why would you think like that?” Tammy asked, and he looked at her. “Mother, don’t pretend you didn’t have a problem with dad marrying Ms. Joy, we know what you did,” and Tammy broke down and cried that her son thought of her that way. She’d never had a problem with Joy’s race, it was her she hated and she hated that Royce loved her and that she was having boys, boys that carried the Harrington name, that Dillon’s place was being jeopardized. She would have hated any woman Royce loved and she saw how much he loved Joy and she hated her for it, and if it had been a white woman she would have hated her the same and called her children evil spawn too, and yes hired a hit man. Joy’s being black was something she could use to spew her hate that’s all, “I only did that for you,” he’d misunderstood. “Well, do anything like that to me and my wife and you will never see us again,” he wasn’t afraid anymore and he meant what he said.
He’d told Shanice what his mother had done and that’s why he was acting the way he did and she said, “Oh my god, I remember that case, my mother was glued to the TV watching to see what happened. That was your mother!” And she forgave him for being non-committal, after all he was trying to save her life.
Royce laughed hard when Dillon called and told him what he’d done. “I told them I’d never see them again if they tried that with me dad,” and Royce put his feet up on his desk and laughed, “Good for you son, good for you,” and Royce knew his father was turning over in his grave that his precious Harrington name was being tarnished all over again. He’d tried to erase the black from the name but now no matter what, Dillon, Justin or Christopher the Harrington’s next generation was going to be part black and he had to laugh.
It was after that Royce got a call from his mother, “Royce darling, I want you to know I sent Tammy away. She and Karen moved out, she’s staying with Karen in Amarillo. Karen still works for your brother but Tammy doesn’t live here anymore. I realize darling that if it bothered you for me to have her here and it kept you away from me then I should have listened. I haven’t seen you in so long my darling boy please come home,” and he could hear the anguish and pain in his mother’s voice and he said, “I can do that mother. Now I can do that,” and he heard the sigh of relief and again he rented a plane and flew his family to Amarillo and again he tried to explained who they were going to meet.
“This is my family, my mother, your grandmother, my brother, your uncle and I think my mother said my sister would be there so your aunt might be there too,” he smiled.
“So why didn’t we know about them before? I don’t understand papa, where have they been?” Justin asked perplexed.
“Well I was…there were some things going on. Look son just know that this is daddy’s side of the family,” and he left it at that, “The ranch is beautiful this time of year. It’s the place I grew up and it’s about time you all saw it,” he said trying to make them feel comfortable and he could see how nervous Joy was. He looked over at her and she had been quiet this trip, “We will leave if they’re not ready to accept,” he said softly to her and she nodded.
Usually people didn’t frighten Joy but these did, these were her husband’s people and they’d had a problem with her and her children and she was scared. It wasn’t like Lanie’s situation and she wished she had that. Big John’s mother and family loved Lanie and their children. The last time she saw Lanie she had Big John’s mother on speakerphone and they laughed and talked and Big John’s mother was talking about what she was sending the kids, and she couldn’t wait to see them, “Kiss my grandbabies for me and the box’ll be there in a day or two!” “Okay bye momma,” Lanie said and Joy envied that, and now here she was driving to see people who might have been involved with trying to have her killed. Her heart thumped rapidly in her chest and she was scared and she didn’t know what to think and she could see Royce his knuckles white gripping the steering wheel, and she almost wanted to grab it and say, “Turn around what if it’s a trap?”
Royce could see how uncomfortable she was. She was sitting ram rod straight and her eyes were glued straight ahead looking out the windshield. She was frightened he could see that and she didn’t bring anything this time. Not that she hadn’t tried, he’d come home to her crying after her second angel food cake had fallen.
The kids were quiet, they could see this wasn’t like going to Hennie’s then it was just trying to explain them and the kids still didn’t understand fully, “So these are your brothers and sisters but she is not your mother?” “And we can’t say anything because nobody knows about them…but people do know about them, the whole neighborhood knows about them?” Oh what a web we weave when trying to deceive, he thought and he couldn’t say to them what he really thought, his father was an asshole and should have never did what he did to Hennie. He should have left her in Boston and let her live her life instead of being hidden away in Amarillo while he lived his life and pretended she didn’t exist.
And after driving past miles and miles of flat Texas plains for Royce this was the first time this drive seemed to take forever they pulled up to the gate. Around it was a white archway with Harrington Ranch written in western script and the letters “HR,” in a brand with the Texas lone star. The gate was open and he drove through, “Wow papa, this is where you lived?” “Yep, all this land you see for miles to the right and left belongs to the Harrington’s,” and he was proud of that, at least the kids got to see where he grew up and the expanse of it all, and he saw Joy looking out the window surveying and she seemed to relax a little looking over the
acres and acres of land, and he thought she looked beautiful today.
Her hair brushed shiny and in the style she’d been wearing lately, slightly wavy and down her back, it was Spring so she wore a peach colored short sleeved dress that was tailored to fit her beautiful curves, it dipped slightly in the back with a little peach colored bow at the base of the dip. She was beautiful and elegant just like his mother, and he had never thought about that or made that connection before. The kids were dressed in their Sunday best as well, and he had on a light grey suit and tie. The house appeared and the kids eyes grew big and excited, “Wow papa, this is the house you grew up in?”
The house they lived in was a beautiful house, but the ranch house had been built before he was born by his great- great-great grandfather who’d been a cotton producing slave owner turned cattle baron and back then to show your wealth you built big. The house was at least twenty thousand square feet, and the barn was off to the back and it was huge and the stables were long and sprawling, the cantina, the barracks where the ranch hands stayed and the corral out back it looked like a resort. It didn’t look like a place for one family, but it was, had been just the Harrington’s for generations.
They pulled up in front of the sprawling turn of the century house with its tall white columns and long wide steps leading to the open porch and wide double thick paned double doors and the children and Joy looked around awed and he held Joy’s hand, “Don’t be afraid baby, I’m here okay,” and she squeezed his hand, and the door opened as they walked up the stairs and a butler was standing there, “Mr. and Mrs. Harrington you are expected,” he slightly bowed and made a flowing hand movement to show them the way in.
Royce offered Joy his arm and led her into his childhood home, and it’s old world charm. They walked onto the black and white checkerboard marble floors of the foyer, a huge chandelier was on and lit brilliantly. And the show piece of the foyer were the identical double winding black wrought iron stairs with beautiful intricate scrollwork, both beautifully long and spiraling, the detail was magnificent, and at the top of the stairs in an indented niche was a very large hand painted portrait of his great-great- great grandfather and grandmother in the finest attire of their day, her in a long puffed out ball gown with ringlets in her hair and him with a handle bar mustache and suit with tails.
The foyer was round and large painted portraits were in indented niches of generations of Harrington’s, army pictures, uncles with thick mustaches, pictures with dogs, all showing the era of the day, and Joy marveled at the history, and in the last portrait at the far end of the wall the man seated and posed elegantly looked like Royce. And without a glance Royce said, “That’s my father.”
The butler led them to a room with closed double doors, “You are expected in the drawing room,” the size of the rooms was astounding to Joy and the butler opened the door, “The Harrington’s madam,” he announced and they walked into a beautiful bright room. It had the old world charm and elegance of the house and it was large and had three floral chintz sofas and stiff high back chairs were placed around the room so that conversations could be had by many, the walls were cream yellow on top and white with picture frame borders on the bottom and large vases of beautiful bold vibrant flowers were placed on coffee tables throughout the room and on a large grand piano in the corner. The rug was thick with a flowered pattern and they walked in and saw people standing in the room, and it was quiet as they stared at each other for a moment and it was Royce’s mother who put her hand over her heart and Joy could see the tear in the corner of her eye as she walked towards them a smile on her face.
Allison Harrington only wanted one thing when she met Walker all those years ago. She was young and pretty and driving her father crazy turning down proposal after proposal and at twenty-one if she didn’t hurry she’d be considered an old maid. “Pick someone Allison, all these young men have been fine, fine choices,” her father said. “Fine for you father, fine to wed to his father’s fortune but I don’t want to be married to a troll!” Or, “Did you see his eyes father, they are little and beady like a rat, and I don’t want little beady rat eyed children!” She found something wrong with every beau he brought her and he was throwing his hands up that his only daughter wouldn’t marry and he blamed her mother and The Women’s Movement, “Putting all those cockamamie ideas in her head,” but that wasn’t it. They just didn’t move her in any way. They were boring and dull and talked like their fathers, it was almost 1960 and they all acted like the robber barons of the past and she didn’t want that.
“Okay Allison I have another suitor who might be of interest, good moneyed people,” her father said and she rolled her eyed and thought, that’s all you’ve brought me so what’s different this time? She was bored with this now and she dressed solemnly and sighed as her maid put on her makeup and stockings and fixed her hair in the latest style flipped out at the ends with a bang. She’d chosen a light green dress to match her eyes and she made her way to the drawing room to meet the latest in a slew of boring dullards her father presented to her.
She walked in without a hint of a smile showing her distaste already for whomever was there and he turned when she walked in and she saw the most handsome man, gorgeous and regal in his bearing. His dark hair was short and combed back, his blue eyes were bold, and smart, like he didn’t miss anything and he had a little mustache above his exquisite lips, and he smiled as she came towards him and she saw his beautiful smile and she smiled too. And she wanted one thing from the moment she met Walker Harrington and that was to be his wife.
And when he married her a few months later she was thrilled and she welcomed his touch and he was damn good, his experience showed, well he was a man of thirty so she figured he’d been around, and all she wanted was to be a good wife and mother. She opened her legs whenever he came to her and moaned her pleasure it felt so good, and when the children came and they were so beautiful and handsome she was so proud she could do that for him, and prided herself for not being a nagging wife when he worked late and took business trips or played golf for hours on end some weekends. Her best defense was to ignore it, she pretended she didn’t see, even if it was right in front of her eyes.
She could have sworn he came home from the office clean shaven and showered quite a bit, but she turned her head and ignored it and she ignored him coming home so happy after a business trip when he’d been gone for days and she missed him and wanted him to fill that void between them. She wanted him to ride her oh so good and he wouldn’t touch her for days like he hadn’t thought about her at all, hadn’t missed touching her, she ignored it. She ignored his ever growing gruff demeanor over the years and sometimes she felt as if he didn’t want to be there at all like he longed to be somewhere else, but she ignored it, chalked it up to old age, he was hers, he was her Walker and he was all she wanted.
To her he would always be the man who swept her off her feet when he courted her, the man who took her on their honeymoon in the south of France and broke her virginal hymen and left the sheets bloody and she loved it, it felt so good they hardly got out of bed. Every time she tried to get up he pulled her back, “One more time, just one more time,” and she’d fall back in bed and let him fill her to her depths. He’d loved her so much those two weeks that when they left to catch their flight home she walked gap legged and he teased her, “Why are you walking like that?” “You know why,” she teased back and she felt so loved and she loved walking like that because he’d been inside her and for months she had him and he took her to bed and loved her almost non-stop.
In the beginning he came home early and never went on a business trip or played a lot of golf, but then around March less than a year into their marriage his grueling work schedule kicked in and he started staying at the office late at least three to five times a week, and he worked late on the eves of Thanksgiving and Christmas, coming home so late sometimes on Christmas Eve they had to scramble to put the kids toys out since she refused to do it without him an
d waited up.
She loved Walker, loved him with everything in her and she loved the life she had and the children. Their children when she looked at them her heart just melted at what she and Walker made. And when Royce disappeared it broke her heart and she cried to him, “Find him Walker, you have to find my baby!” And he said, “Oh I will, and I will bring him home with or without his wife and children!” And she said, “What do you mean? He’s not coming back without his wife and children?” She thought that was crazy for him to think that, and he said, “If I have to bring him back without them I will!” And after years went by and she was still worried and wondering where her baby was and asked Walker, “Why haven’t you found him? It can’t be that hard, he has a wife and children with him for god’s sake!” “I know it was foolhardy for him to do what he did, but if he hadn’t married that negra none of this would be happening!” And she ignored it.
And after his death when she chanced upon another safe in his office. She’d always thought there was one safe in the office, the one behind her portrait and the combination was her birthday, but the maid was cleaning Walker’s portrait one day and a huge spider jumped down on her and she screamed a bloodcurdling scream and they all ran in to see what was going on and she went to straighten the skewed picture and felt it rub against something and looked behind it and found another safe, and she couldn’t open it. She used every birthday in the house and it still wouldn’t open, it took a safe smith to come out and he discovered the combination, 3, 29, 19, 31 and she had no idea why those numbers but he got it open and she found Henrietta Johnson.
Royce Page 56