“Does Jerry know you’re showing me these?”
“No, I’d like to keep this between you and me.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Would you be willing to give up Jeremy and not marry him?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I was never more serious in my life. These letters don’t just accuse you of carrying on with Jeremy before Vivian died. They accuse you of murdering her. They all imply that you set the fire at Leafy Way, so that she would be killed and you could then marry Jeremy without his having to go through the politically damaging process of a contested divorce.”
“Job, you know that’s all absurd.”
“I know it, but the people who write these letters don’t, and that’s what counts. If you marry Jeremy now, you are giving yourself the motive for murder they have already assigned to you.”
“There’s no evidence the fire was arson.”
“That’s what the insurance company says now, but Wilkes is still working on it. If he turns up something, and you are the only person with a motive for killing Vivian, the police are going to question you very closely indeed. Headlines, television commentators, gossip columnists, the works. Why marry him? Aren’t you happy enough as you are now?”
Tash managed to keep her temper and said quietly: “We want to have children.”
“Forget it! At least, for the time being. In three or four years the whole thing may die down. Or somebody else may be accused of the murder. I’m only advising you this way for your own good.”
Tash laughed. “Am I supposed to thank you?”
“You don’t have to, but I hope you won’t tell Jeremy how I feel about this.”
“Of course I shall tell Jeremy. We don’t have secrets from each other.”
She did not tell him all the details of her conversation with Job for fear it would make him angry with Job. She merely said that Job wanted them to postpone their marriage until the spate of scurrilous letters had died down.
Jeremy took this lightly. “Poor old Job! Always seeing lost elections under the bed. People who write letters like that are crackpots, like those people who still think the earth is flat. According to the last Gallup Poll, I’ve got a majority of voters in my camp already. I think we should be married as soon as the election is over. It was you who thought we should wait a year, but if Job or anyone else thinks I’m going to wait four or five years . . . Tash, you’re not listening!”
“There’s so much malice in these letters,” she answered. “It’s beginning to frighten me.”
Aside from this Tash was happy as she had never been happy before in her whole life. Working with Jeremy on the western speeches was not work now; it was play. Never before had she walked with such a light foot and a high heart. Never before had the scent of roses been so sweet or the sound of music so joyous or the sunshine so bright.
Like most happy people she wanted others to be as happy as herself, and this made her more tolerant than she had ever been before. The sharp eye for other people’s failings which had once spiced her newspaper column was gone. Even poor Gordon Freese was invited to dinner at Fox Run one evening because she thought it would gratify him, as it obviously did.
The Victorians had preached: Be good and you will be happy; but there is something in the opposite idea: Be happy and you will be good.
Hilary was characteristically concerned about the clothes she and Tash would wear on the western trip. “Won’t our ordinary clothes do?”
“Yours won’t, dear. You haven’t appeared in a single new thing since I first met you.”
“What should I get?”
“It will be suit weather out there at this time of year. You should get at least one new suit, very plain and very chic. Those rich western women will look like singes endimanchés.”
“Overdressed? I should have thought the opposite.”
“It’s an over-reaction to the Davy Crockett notions of the males out there. You must show them how eastern women combine severity with elegance.”
“Won’t they mistake what you call severity for dowdiness if they’re not used to it?”
“No. They may be hillbillies, but they’re still women. They’ll know chic when they see it, whether they know how to achieve it themselves or not. Get some good shoes and a small hat so they can see your face.”
“Why any hat at all?”
“You’ll be in an open car most of the time. You’ll need something to keep your hair in order. There will be a lot of formal occasions and hats are a part of formality.”
“You do seem to have worked everything out to the minutest detail.”
“It’s important. You’re not just a member of the staff anymore. They’ve all heard of you, and they probably all know you’re going to marry the Governor. The younger and smarter you look, the less likely they are to think of you as Lady MacBeth. A great deal is forgiven to the young and reasonably pretty, so put your best foot forward.”
Somewhat reluctantly, Tash drew most of her savings out of the bank and went to the shop that Hilary called a boutique. The prices alarmed her, but she had to live up to Jeremy now, so she gritted her teeth and chose two suits, one light, one dark, with blouses and shoes and hats that went with them. She liked the light suit best, a short jacket and skirt of sheer wool in a subtle robin’s egg blue. The brown velvet collar made her eyes still more brown. The small hat, shaped like a crown, was brown velvet, too.
“That’s the one to wear on special occasions,” said Hilary. “And, for God’s sake, no jewels and no furs.”
“You wear mink all the time.”
“That’s different. I’m an old woman, and it’s the only warm winter coat I’ve got. I
