“I’m not sure, but I think we are.”

“Call me, will you, Helena?  When you have a chance of course.”

“I don’t know when that will be.  We’re having lunch with her mother.”

“Her mother?  I thought she didn’t know her mother.”

“She just showed up yesterday.  It was really weird.  I don’t know what quite to make of her.”

“Bring her to dinner and I’ll sniff her out, so to speak and invite her sister too.”

“Ok, mummy.  Have a safe trip back to the beach house.  And, mummy?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

Helena said it because she really meant it.  She loved her mother, though she annoyed her to no end.  Hearing Bette’s story about her mother made her realize how easy she had it.  Sure, Peggy gave her a hard time; she at least knew she loved her.

“I love you too, darling.”

After hanging up, Helena made her way back to the table.

“Is everything okay?” Bette asked.

“Yeah, it was mummy.  She’s on her way home and we’re all invited to dinner tonight at the house.  That’s assuming that everybody here is free tonight.”

Everyone confirmed that were available.  Kit, who knew the directions, offered to give Maxine a ride.

**

Bette and Helena separated for a while to change into something more appropriate for dinner but drove together to Peggy’s home.  Walking inside, they found that Maxine and Kit had already arrived.

“Bette and Helena!” Peggy called out.  She immediately noticed that they were holding hands and that they were smiling brightly.

Peggy had never seen Helena look so happy.  Peggy kissed them both on their cheeks.  Luke watched from afar, knowing that he couldn’t really approach either of them, not with how Bette completely destroyed his ego.

“Bette, I’m just getting to know your mother.  She told me that when you were a baby, you had an aptitude for languages and you spoke earlier then most kids.”

Bette looked over to her mother.  How dare she share the tidbits about Bette’s life with other people?  Especially when the only knowledge she had of her was from the first 9 years of her life.

“It’s true, you know.” Maxine said, “She was always smart and always talking, convincing people to give her anything she desired.”

Peggy motioned for everyone to sit down, “Well, if you think she was convincing then, you should see her now.  Bette is the talk of the art world.”

“I don’t know if I’m the talk of the art world quite yet, Peggy.”

“Trust me.  After organizing that fundraiser, everyone is asking when I’ll be done with you so they can have you.” Peggy said, smiling in an almost proud way.  She was proud of her and proud to say that she had brought her under her wing, “I knew she was special, you know, when I first met her.”

Instead of feeling proud, Maxine just felt guilty.

“She is special ‘cause she’s my sister.”  Kit said.

Helena smiled in agreement.  Bette was special.

“Okay, enough about me!” Bette said, getting embarrassed, “Peggy, we should all go look at you’re collection after dinner.”

Peggy agreed.  Where she kept some of the works in her collection was in a small gallery at the west end of the compound.  Peggy knew this was a place where she could catch Maxine alone, to pick her brain and figure out what exactly she wanted with Bette.