Chapter 29

"Well, I'm sure you got the gist of it from that little scene back there," Henry said shrugging as he made himself comfortable having left Queens campus for more privacy. "In short my father's family was extremely well to do and didn't believe he should marry my mother. They had greater expectations for him, plans for a marriage to someone else. They had the bride all picked out. Him and my mother met in his final year of law school. I remember my ma saying it was love at first sight and agaisnt the odds. I was to young to really understand what she had meant when she told me. She knew she was dying and wanted to make sure I at least knew what she could tell me of my father. Begged me to remember, to keep him alive in my memories once she was gone. She was only 15 and the illiterate daughter of poor irish immigrants. She had gone out searching for work and found him instead. He was almost a decade her senior, but it didn't matter. She once told me he wrote her poetry. Anne has decided he must have been tall, dark, dashing and terribly romantic." With a teasing grin at Anne he said, "I'm not quite sure where my mother's description of my father ends and Anne's ideals begin."

"He was romantic," Anne said staunchly.

"Yes well the romantic, freshly minted lawyer and his child bride got married in a whirlwind romance and shortly after had me," Henry said continuing. "He was so confident that they would always be happy and together that he didn't think making a will or setting any protections aside for my ma and me was necessary. The lady that brought me to the orphanage, Patty, she was a good friend of my mother's, she told me more of my parents as I grew. She used to come vist me at the orphanage every so often, to check in on me, having promised my mother she would do so, until those visits just stopped with no notice or any explanation. Patty was the one who told the orphanage my name was Henry Mack. She told me it was for my own protection, that my father's family was a vindictive lot and it would be best if from that moment on the name Henry Mackenzie was dead. She had watched the Mackenzie's use their money and influence to claim the money my father had in the bank and to even claim my ma's wedding ring. Their lawyer, she said, showed up with some fancy papers and charges of theft if the ring was not returned because my father had bought it with his allowance provided by his parents and therefore it was their rightful property, not my mother's. Patty said my ma tried to find a lawyer to fight for her but couldn't afford the fees and keep food on our table, so she duly handed over her wedding ring, the last reminder she had of her husband."

Gilbert could feel the tightness in his chest and the moisture gathering in his eyes. It was awful. His best friend had a family, a family that had rejected him and treated his mother like dirt.

"Of course it was about three years after Patty's visits stopped that Anne came to the orphanage. It wasn't long before Anne knew everything about my parents that I knew," Henry said with a wry grin at her. "She adored a good tragic romance and my parents had all the good bits. I could tell her anything and of course I did. We had no secrets from each other about our pasts."

"We were meant to be brother and sister," Anne said softly. "I had always dreamed of having a big brother and then there you were that day pulling me off Tommy as some of them kicked at us, telling Tommy to grab my other hand and draggging us at a run away. Then once we were away and stopped running you said, I'm Henry and I'm going to be your big brother. I won't let them hurt you, you got that?"

"You looked at me with those big gray eyes and declared you had always wanted a brother or sister and hadn't thought to get two in once day," Henry said with a smile, then he glanced back toward Gilbert and continued, knowing Gilbert would find what was coming up in his story particularly difficult. "And it was about one year after Anne and Tommy, that Anne and I had a little run in with old lady Mackenzie ourselves. A Mrs. Mackenzie was at the orphanage and Anne, knowing my history, was hopeful that one of the evil Mackenzie's had repented and seen the light and had come to find me."

Anne sighed and said, "If only."

"Yes, well that was not the case," Henry said taking Anne's hand in his. "In a strange twist of fate Mrs. Mackenzie was touring the orphanage in preparation of perhaps donating a sum. She saw me and Anne, when we came to get a peek at her, and looked at us with such horror and outrage, declaring she couldn't stand red heads, particularly females. That a redhead seductress had deystroyed her son and caused his death. She ranted and raved, demanded we be beat, particularly Anne as a female, so we didn't forget our place in life. It was the only beating I couldn't save Anne from," Henry said with aunguish as Gilbert blanched and instinctively reached for Anne wrapping her into a hug, her hand still in Henry's.

"I survived," Anne said giving Henry's hand a squeeze, laying her head against Gilbert, comforted by his very presence.

"And that, luckily, was my only run in with my dear old grandma," Henry said scowling.

Raising her head from where it rested against Gilbert, Anne said, "You have to take the legacy Henry. If there aren't any strings attached tuly, you have to take it. That old bat must be livid that someone related to her dared to provide for you. But more than that, you can use it for college. Become a lawyer. Help people. The people that need someone to fight for them, people like your mother and Patty. You have to take it," Anne said her eyes shining.