Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes

Chapter One Virginia Broadwell was angry. And anyone who knew Virginia, knew she was a dangerous woman when riled. Her first husband, the Judge, had learned this lesson long before he died, and her only son, Charles, had experienced the sting of her self-contained fury enough times over his forty-five years to be gun-shy. And her new husband would learn it, too, although Virginia would wait until the last thank-you note had been written and the ring was securely settled on her finger before showing Redmon that side of her nature. She would give him a chance to settle into the traces and take the bit firmly between his teeth before applying the whip the first time. Downstairs she could hear the wedding guests milling about. She looked around the flowered chintz bedroom she had shared with the Judge for nearly twenty-six years, and then spent the next twenty years enjoying in solitary bliss. It would be sad to leave this house, the one she had insisted the Judge build for her all those years ago, before she would agree to marry him. The scene of so many of her social triumphs, the place where she had plotted and schemed her way to the top of the wobbly Ithaca social ladder, and which now, sadly, must be sold to pay her debts. Redmon, like the wily redneck businessman he was, had insisted she enter the marriage debt-free. He had insisted she sign a prenuptial agreement. Despite herself, Virginia had felt a kind of grudging admiration for him then. She would have done the same thing had their circumstances been reversed. She had survived an unfortunate childhood, widowhood, scandal, near financial ruin, and now Y2K, and it had seemed only fitting that she set her wedding date for January 20, 2000. Let others worry about computer crashes and social anarchy; Virginia had endured enough turmoil in her life to know that victory belonged to the bold and the cunning. There was a knock on the door and her son, Charles, stuck his head in. "Mother, are you ready?" He wore the same, whipped-dog expression he had worn since his meek wife of sixteen years walked out of his life a little over a year ago, taking with her his children, his pride, and nearly six hundred thousand dollars of his assets. His defeatism irritated Virginia beyond words. "Yes, I'm ready," she said. "I'm ready to do my duty, to do whatever is necessary to hold this family together" "Good." He knew where this was headed and he wanted no part of it. "I'll give the signal then." He tried to close the door but Virginia inserted her slim little foot. Charles sighed and swung the door open again. "Yes, Mother?" he said, rolling his eyes skyward like a martyr on his way to the stake. "Come in and close the door behind you," she said fiercely. He did as he was told and followed her into the center of the room, where she stood looking at herself in a cheval glass. She lifted a well-manicured hand, indicating a wingback chair by the window. "Do we really have to do this now?" he said, and when she said nothing, only stared at him steadily in the glass, he sighed and slumped down with his feet stretched in front of him. "You brought this on yourself," she said. She sniffed, looking at herself critically in the mirror. There weren't many women her age who could still wear designer clothes and heels. Hadn't she caught the bag boy at the Piggly Wiggly staring at her legs yesterday as he loaded her groceries into the car? And hadn't some ruffians in a pickup truck whistled at her last week as she crossed the street in front of the Courthouse? Charles slumped in his chair and stared despondently at a spot in the center of the oriental carpet. It was his newest technique,Holton, Cathy is the author of 'Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes ', published 2007 under ISBN 9781400063680 and ISBN 140006368X.