“Goodness,” said Judith, aghast. “Do you think power is
what this is all about?”
“Yes.” Margo tucked her bag under one arm and carried
four game hens to the microwave. “What else?”
Judith began uncovering the green bean and mushroom
dish she had prepared at Hillside Manor. “Yet there’s a
chance OTIOSE might survive?”
“It’s possible,” Margo allowed, waiting for the microwave
to turn off. “But I don’t want to be the one who has to shuck
and jive with the media. Not to mention that I couldn’t go
on working for the company after all this. Good God,
somebody on the executive floor is a killer!”
Judith gave Margo a rueful smile. “Then you don’t think
it’s my cousin or me?”
“Hardly.” Margo removed the first four game hens and put
the next batch in the microwave. “Unless you’re a couple of
hired assassins, I don’t see the point.”
The concept made Judith laugh. “We’re not. We’re exactly
what we seem to be—a couple of Heraldsgate Hill housewives who run their own businesses on the side.”
“Housewives,” Margo repeated. “What a quaint term.”
Unexpectedly, she added, “I like it.”
Involuntarily, Judith’s eyes strayed to the digital time display on the stove. It didn’t tick, but something did, and Judith
guessed that it was Margo’s biological clock.
“Has your career gotten sort of…redundant?” Judith
couldn’t think of a better word.
Margo sighed. “I’m virtually at the top of my profession.
I make good money, I’m well respected, my life’s my own.”
She stopped, staring gloomily at the microwave.
“But it’s not enough.” There was no query in Judith’s
words. “Everyone has holes in their lives, it’s part of human
nature. But some of them can be filled.”
Margo looked at Judith with something akin to awe. “You
do understand. Somehow, I thought you were…” She
fumbled for words; Judith thought Margo didn’t do that very
often.
“You thought I was a pinhead because I’m not in the
business world,” Judith said with a little smile. “The real
world is down on the ground, not on the thirtieth floor. I’ve
spent my life with my feet planted firmly in the earth. Believe
me, there’ve been many times when strong winds
threatened to knock me over. But I’ve kept standing there,
as if I’d grown roots. I may not have been a career woman,
but I
behind you and head off to the job. On the other hand, except for the paycheck, there’s not much real payoff. At least
not the kind that really counts.”
Margo nodded gravely. “Success—even money and power
