But Samuel didn’t. “He makes a point,” he said. “That’s all I’m going to say about it.”
“So you didn’t want her to be the heir apparent,” said Colin asked, “so you did what?”
“He tried to kill me just like I said.”
“I was in jeopardy too. And my girlfriend. There’s no way I would have put Maude in danger just to get rid of you.”
“See how he talks about me, Daddy! He just met that girl but he’s so in love with her. Yet he hates me. His own sister. That’s why he tried to set up Hamp to take the spotlight off of him.” Then she looked at Edmund. “You tried to set up Hamp.”
“And you killed Hamp. Which is worse?”
“Killed him? What do you mean?” She seemed genuinely floored to them. “Hamp isdead?”
“His diner was firebombed yesterday,” Maude said.
“With him inside?”
Maude nodded. “I’m afraid so, yes.”
Natasha broke down into uncontrollable tears and screams. Colin and Edmund rushed to her side as Samuel pressed a button.
Within seconds, his butler hurried into the room. “Get her upstairs,” Samuel ordered his butler.
“Yes sir.”
“And call Doc Creigton. Tell him to get here now.”
“Yes, sir,” the butler said as he and Colin escorted a totally distraught Natasha up the stairs to her bedroom.
But Maude looked at Edmund. “She loved Hamp?” she asked him.
He hunched his shoulders. He was as confused as she was.
When Edmund sat back down, Eloise looked at Maude. “Were you named after Bea Arthur?”
That was out of nowhere. Maude looked at Eloise. “Excuse me?”
“Were you named after Bea Arthur?”
Her daughter just accused her son of trying to kill her, then her daughter had a meltdown over the man that accused her of killing his wife, and she was asking about somebody Maude had never heard of before? Was it her coping mechanism around a family this dysfunctional? “Who’s Bea Arthur?” Maude asked her.
Eloise was shocked. “You don’t know Bea Arthur?”
“She’s not ancient like you, Ellie,” Samuel said. “She doesn’t know who Bea Arthur is. She probably never watched a single episode of The Golden Girls.”
That was true, Maude thought.
“I’m not talking about the role she played on The Golden Girls. I’m talking about when she played Maude on that TV program. Maude was one tough cookie.”
“She was tough alright,” said Samuel. “She was a pain in the ass to Archie Bunker.”
“To Archie Bunker?” Maude knew about him. “She was a pain in the ass to that racist? Good!”
Edmund and Eloise laughed. But Samuel was offended.
“Anyway,” Eloise said before he had a chance to show his offensiveness. She stood up, which prompted all of them to stand too. “Let’s all get some shut eye. It’s considered late in these parts.”
“Breakfast is served promptly at eight a.m.,” said Samuel. “And Maude, we don’t do C.P. time around here.”
