When the Lady said “Truth!”, Harry said “Forsooth!” It was their word.
Lady Smock had a habit of uttering “truth” at the end of her mutli-character, inter-generational stories. “I’m 1/8th Hapsburg on my mother’s side and my 3rd cousin twice removed was John Jacob Astor’s wife. He died on the Titanic but she survived. Truth.”
Harry’s eyebrows would rise and she’d raise hers right back at him. It was the gospel truth. Generations of gentle Lords and Lady Smocks couldn’t be wrong. It was historical fact.
Harry kept his doubts to himself because her gilded shell suited him well. Forsooth!
Mrs. John Jacob Astor
Writing Bites 
I love this! It reminds of my great aunt, now deceased, who was full of generational stories. (And the photo reminds me of the “undergarments”—her word—of her times) I still can’t keep straight the regular second cousins, and those twice removed…..
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I have had the regular versus the twice removed cousins explained to me and each time my eyes glaze over, my chin drops and I start to snore. Clearly genealogy is not my thing.
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