“ ‘Well, yes, she did,’ said Grady, slipping off his wire-rimmed glasses and sitting back. ‘And it’s a well-known fact that Terry Sue is one beautiful young woman, and a young woman who likes to have babies. But it’s not that new baby that I want to discuss now. It seems that Terry Sue had a child by Pops about nine years ago.’

“ ‘That’s impossible!’ I said. ‘He would never have been unfaithful to Sweetheart!’

“ ‘It wasn’t a thing he was proud of, Quinn,’ said Grady. ‘Indeed, he was not proud of it, and he was deeply concerned that the rumors about it would never disturb his family.’

“ ‘I don’t believe it,’ I said again.

“ ‘DNA has proved it, Quinn,’ said Grady. ‘And Terry Sue of course has always known it, and out of affection for Sweetheart, for whom Terry Sue did baking, you know—.’

“ ‘Those big Virginia hams,’ I said. ‘She’d soak them and scrub them and bake them.’

“ ‘What tenderness,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘Seems she soaked and scrubbed something else. But Grady, you have a point to make with this revelation, don’t you, dear fellow?’

“ ‘Indeed, I do, Miss Queen,’ said Grady. ‘Pops was in the habit of taking an envelope of cash over there to Terry Sue every week or so, and though whatever man she’s with tends to run off the old ones, no one was ever tempted to run off Pops with his envelope. It was about five hundred a week that he gave her. And this keeps the boy in a good Catholic school—St. Joseph’s over in Mapleville—and that was the one term exacted for it, as far as I know. The boy’s nine years old now, I believe. He’s in the fourth grade.’

“ ‘We’ll continue this, of course,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘Can we see this child?’

“ ‘I recommend you do,’ said Grady, ‘because he’s a beautiful boy, handsome as you, Quinn, and he’s bright too, and Terry Sue, for all her faults, is trying to bring him up right. His name is Tommy. One thing that might help, if you’ll take my suggestion. Now Pops never would but . . .’

“ ‘But what is it?’ I asked. I was flabbergasted by all this.

“ ‘Give her enough money to send all those children of hers to good schools,’ said Grady. ‘Equalize things, you know what I mean? If you take toys or video games or what have you out there, take it for all the children.’

“ ‘I see, yes, I understand,’ said Aunt Queen. ‘You’ll have to give me a written report as to the size of the family and then we can arrange . . .’