Daddy's Girls (9)
They left the funeral home feeling drained, and went to meet Peter and Caroline’s children. They had been to visit a nearby miniature horse farm to keep them distracted. Then they went back to the ranch for lunch, and Juliette cooked for them in her kitchen. She served paté she’d made herself that their father loved, a big salad, some cold chicken she bought on the way home, and two bottles of wine that Peter opened for her. Everything Juliette did always came out seeming French, no matter how many years she’d been there.
They went out for dinner that night, to a small Italian restaurant, and every five minutes someone came to the table to extend their condolences. They were exhausted by the time they went home.
Two days later, the service was dignified and simple, the way their father would have liked it. The church was filled to the rafters with all the people who had admired and respected him, and many who barely knew him. At the funeral, Juliette sat next to Jimmy’s daughters in the front pew with Peter, Morgan, and Billy. Thad and the senior ranch hands sat in the pew right behind them. There were faces from the past and the present.
Jimmy’s lawyer was there. They all knew him and he said on the way out of the church that he would drop off a copy of the will for each of them that afternoon. Their father had discussed it with Kate when he’d last brought it up to date, and they expected no surprises. He was leaving the ranch and any money he had divided equally among the three of them. They had decisions to make about that too. They could maintain their joint ownership, if they wished, or if any of the girls didn’t want their share of the ranch, they could sell it to the others. His only wish was that they keep it in the family. But neither Gemma nor Caroline used it, and they had no idea what to do about it. They weren’t planning to discuss it that weekend. Four days before, he’d been vital and alive, and now they were faced with reading his will, and whether or not to divide up the property and how to do it.
“We should go through his safe in the office before you two leave,” Kate said on their way back to the house, where they knew several hundred people would be waiting for them to pay their respects to the family. Gemma had called a caterer in Santa Barbara to handle it, and provide a bar and buffet, and none of them were looking forward to it.
“Do you think there’s anything important in the safe?” Caroline didn’t look eager to deal with it. The funeral had been hard enough, and she had agreed to stay for a few days, to go through her father’s personal effects with them. Peter was going to take the children back to San Francisco the day after the funeral. Since she and Gemma came so rarely, Kate wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of having them there, and they reluctantly agreed to go through his safe in the office, and some of his personal effects at the house.
In the end, hundreds of people came and went all afternoon. Peter stood on the receiving line with them, somberly greeting the guests, and speaking softly to Caroline, and occasionally his sisters-in-law. Afterward, they were too emotionally drained to deal with their father’s safe, and put it off to do the next morning.
Looking exhausted, all three sisters met in their father’s office at ten o’clock the next morning, after Peter and the children had gone. They hadn’t even read the copies of their father’s will by then, and were in no rush to do it. The lawyer had dropped off copies for Juliette and Thad too, which suggested that he had left them bequests, which seemed appropriate in Juliette’s case, to honor the twenty-four years they had spent together. And Thad had been devoted to him for nineteen years, and was almost like a son in JT’s eyes.
Kate knew the combination of the huge safe by heart, and opened it easily. There were stacks of recent ledgers relating to different aspects of their business. She was surprised to find an envelope with fifty thousand dollars in it. It was unusual for him to keep that much cash on hand. Kate put it on the desk, along with everything she pulled out of the safe. It all related to the business. At the very back, she found a thick manila envelope with her father’s handwriting. It said “Scarlett” on it, their mother. Kate wondered if there were sentimental papers in it, maybe letters from her, or photographs, or her death certificate. Both Gemma and Caroline noticed the envelope as Kate set it down, and they spotted their mother’s name.
“Do we really want to go through that?” Gemma asked, looking uncomfortable. “Isn’t one death enough to deal with?” Caroline looked as though she agreed with her, but said nothing.
“We might as well do it now,” Kate said, and removed the yellowed tape that sealed it. There were several smaller envelopes inside. One looked like a letter and was addressed to him in an unfamiliar hand, and there was a file of court documents, which Kate opened and started to flip through, and then looked up at her sisters.
“What is it?” Caroline glanced over at her, startled by the look on her sister’s face. It was obviously something she hadn’t expected.
“Did Dad ever say anything to you about their being divorced before Mom died?” Kate asked in barely more than a whisper.
“Of course not,” Gemma answered. “They weren’t divorced. They were married when she died. What is that?”
Without a word, she handed the file to Gemma, who flipped through several pages, and then handed the file to Caroline with a look of amazement. “Shit, Kate, why didn’t he tell us?” Gemma said, shocked.