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By Root 1395 0

said, “Of course, I shall not speak of the hurt this has inflicted on me, but I will mention something more important—not only to me, but to Buck. And to our country.” She sat down on the edge of the chair opposite Francie, her hands clasped around her shapely knees, her eyebrows raised in interrogation. “Does he speak to you of his work?” She didn’t wait for an answer, just shrugged and carried on. “No, no of course he wouldn’t, I’m sure you had other things to talk about. Then I must tell you that his work means everything to Buck. He is a dedicated man, a political animal through and through. He lives for politics. You have known him such a short while, how could you possibly be expected to understand these things? But, you see, I have known him all my life, his father used to bring him to my home when he was just a boy. We were a family of politicians and Buck rarely bothered to play with us children. Oh no, he was always hanging around the library, listening to them talk. I guess he absorbed politics by osmosis—through his skin, and I must say my family encouraged him. And as he grew up they saw he had a big future ahead of him. Take politics away from Buck, Miss Harrison, and you might as well stick a knife into his back.” She paused again to let her words sink in Francie stared at her, mesmerized. “A scandal like this”—she shrugged, lifting her arms expressively outward and up—“a scandal like this affair would finish him in politics.”

Francie looked away from her, down at the pattern on the carpet. “I understand,” she said quietly.

Maryanne sighed. “I hope so, Miss Harrison. I do hope so. For Buck’s sake, not my own.” She paused, a gleam of triumph in her eyes. “Buck has a brilliant political future in front of him. The political world is Buck’s oyster. It just wouldn’t be right—for any of us—to jeopardize that.”

Francie’s heart sank, she thought of the child she was carrying and realized how wide the gap was between Buck’s life and her own. Their time together at the ranch, which she had thought so real, was just play-acting, and reality was the man with the brilliant political future ahead of him, married to the perfect woman who gave him children who had the right to bear his name. She looked at Maryanne Brattle Wingate, so confident of her “rightness,” confident of her life, of her claims on her husband, and she knew she could never ask Buck to give it all up. She would never be the one to put the knife in his back and take away all the things he had worked so hard to achieve.

There was sadness in her eyes, but her voice was calm and quiet as she said, “Thank you for coming to see me, Mrs. Wingate. I realize how hard it must have been for you. Of course I shall tell Buck that I do not wish to see him again.”

Maryanne couldn’t hide the triumph in her voice as she got to her feet and said, “And, of course, I’m sure I can rely on your discretion. You know how important it is for him.”

“Naturally.” Francie walked with her to the hall. She watched as Maryanne put on her coat and hat and then she said quietly, “Ah Fong will show you out.” She left Maryanne and walked up the beautiful flying staircase to her room and lay tearless on the bed.

She heard the door close downstairs and she stared at the ceiling, imagining Mrs. Wingate hurrying down the front steps and back down Nob Hill, back to her husband and their wonderful future. And as the bitter tears flowed she asked herself why fortune treated her so harshly. And she felt again the way she had when she was a child, when her terrifying father towered over her, the strap in his hand. It was then that she had first realized that it was a man’s world and she was merely a woman.

CHAPTER 38

Annie watched with astonishment as Maryanne Wingate hurried across the lobby to the elevator, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for it to appear. She watched her step inside, glancing nervously around until the doors closed and she was swept upward out of sight. Maryanne had often stayed at Aysgarth’s over the years and in all that time she had never seen her