Free The Philanthropist's Danse by Paul Wornham

his words rang true. She looked at Philip who just watched them fight, something he had enjoyed before he was even old enough to understand their words.

    “What do you think, Phil? Do you have any wisdom to share other than that William might be sleeping with this French girl?”
    Philip considered for a moment, sat forward in his chair and the others copied his movement until they sat in a tight circle, their heads almost touching. “All I know is, none of this adds up. I could understand if the Old Man gave up on me, or Junior, but not you Beth, you were his favorite. What did you ever do to him?”
    Her lips trembled at their mention of her close relationship to their father. Bethany’s eyes filled with tears, but she fought them back. She drew on the flicker of anger inside her gut for strength. “We have to take control. If we don’t take it, someone like Freddie Hagood will. And then, dear brothers, we’ll be well and truly fucked.”
    She looked at Junior with a faint smile. “We need 75% to get a motion passed. There are twelve people in the room, so we need nine votes. We can count on Larry to join us, it won’t cost much, he doesn’t need any of father’s money.” Junior and Philip listened closely as Bethany continued. “I’m sure we can get the Elliot’s support. Dennis will surely back our claim and Janice will too, for a fair price. That gives us six votes. So, who else can we recruit?”
    She discounted Hagood and the French girl and shuddered as she forced herself to consider an awful choice. “We could get the whore. It would be cheaper to bring her in than have her working against us, don’t you agree?” The brothers shrugged, they had less of a problem with Betty than their sister did. They agreed Betty could be number seven. Junior nodded as their plan came together. “Seven is a good number, but we’re still two short.”
    Bethany’s mind cleared as the act of dealing with their problem pushed her grief from being foremost in her thoughts. “With seven people voting our way, there’s a good chance we can persuade two more to get on board, if we play this right. We should try to get rid of someone and see who joins us. I say we give that old woman what she wants and send her home. No one knows her, she’ll go quietly.”
    Junior interrupted. “So when we get the group down to eleven people we’ll only need eight for the next vote, assuming that Bird rounds down.” He sounded excited, and Bethany picked up the thought. “That means we only need to convince one more person to join us, and we can get rid of another person. But who should we target next?”
    Philip had anticipated her question. “Freddie Hagood or the Judge should be next. Either is capable of organizing against us, so we need to remove them fast. Also, it will be a lot easier to deal with Frenchie once we have all the power.”
    Bethany turned to her younger brother in surprise. “Phil, you’re as scheming as we are.”
    “I’m not stupid Beth, just uneducated.” He smiled his most charming smile and she felt a wave of affection wash over her. She could become extremely frustrated with Philip, but then he’d do something unexpected and flash that smile, and she’d fall helplessly in love with him again. Junior broke into their tender moment. “Okay. I like the plan, now let’s figure out how we’re going to get it done.” Their heads lowered into a tight circle again as they quietly plotted.
    $
    Larry MacLean chatted with Caroline Smith in the lobby. She was a woman he admired for her achievements, but could not bring himself to like. Smith was full of barely concealed excitement at the exposure of Thurwell’s illegitimate daughter and of the Georgia Judge’s questionable intervention in a case against Philip. Her gossipy exuberance was unattractive and surprised MacLean, who had never seen her so animated. He realized she was thinking only in terms of her share of the money.
    MacLean looked for a way