“If you’re trying to influence legislation, why aren’t you using the show to do that?” Avery asked.
Elizabeth cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“State your case so our audience, which is huge, by the way,” Avery pointed out, “can make up its own mind. Teach them how to call their senators and lobby for the result you want. I thought you were all about lobbying, remember?” That’s what Elizabeth had told her when she’d first arrived.
“Is that possible?” Elizabeth asked. “I mean, would I be allowed to do that?”
“Have you not watched this show?” Avery asked her. “People get away with a lot!”
“Wouldn’t that make people suspicious, though?”
“Maybe,” Avery conceded, “but maybe not. We’re all passionate about something. If I were you, I’d set it up so someone asks you questions about your job, and you can innocently answer with all the information you want people to know. Renata would be the one to work with on that front.”
“That’s genius,” Elizabeth said.
“That’s generous,” Walker corrected her. It was just like Avery to take the side of a woman who had been her enemy just minutes ago.
“It’s important,” Avery said. “That’s why we’re here, right? To save the world?”
“Something like that.” Elizabeth hugged Avery impulsively, then pulled back, blinking hard. “Sorry. I don’t usually act like that.”
“Don’t be sorry. That’s the first nice thing you’ve done since you’ve gotten here.”
“I’m not always a bitch, I promise,” Elizabeth said.
“Only when you’re fighting for everyone’s future. That’s fine.” Avery waved it off. “Do I really get to plan my wedding?”
“Of course. But we can’t be friends—not until after this is all over.”
“Deal. Enemies.” Avery held out her hand. Elizabeth took it, and they shook.
“Enemies,” Elizabeth agreed.
“And then—get this—she marries him! The guy she didn’t recognize for half a year even though she worked with him every single day!” the Star News announcer, Marla, said. She turned to her co host. “The question is, Paul, why did Greg marry Renata? Is he used to being ignored? Did his parents keep mistaking him for a coat rack when he was a kid?”
“Maybe they had anger issues,” Paul said. “Heaven knows Renata Ludlow does. All that ordering people around. Playing with their lives. How do we know she didn’t force Greg to propose to her? Maybe she’s blackmailing him because she knows some deep, dark secret. She’s a master manipulator.”
“That’s true, Paul. She could be blackmailing him. All of America—the whole world—could be watching a hostage situation play out on live TV. And the radical left is probably celebrating it!”
“Turn that off!” Greg roared, startling Avery, who found that her mouth was hanging open as she watched the show while gathering her things to prepare for a visit to Two Willows. Star News had said a lot of poisonous things about Base Camp, but comparing Greg and Renata’s marriage to a hostage situation took the cake.
It was a rainy afternoon, and while some groups were still managing to do chores, others had come back to the bunkhouse to wait for the shower to end.
“Ready?” Elizabeth asked her. “The Russells are here. I’m glad they sent a closed carriage this time.”
“Their barouche has a hood you can put up,” Avery told her, “but you’re right, a closed carriage is better in this downpour.”
“I’m not sure why we aren’t simply taking a truck.”
“Because if James Russell was forced to spend a whole day inside without exercising his horses, he’d fall into a depression and never recover again, as Maud told me when she called earlier.”
Nothing Elizabeth could say about their transportation could ruin Avery’s good mood, even if they were supposed to be enemies. She was going to try on wedding dresses today. Everyone thought it was Elizabeth who Alice would be fitting for the gowns, and more than one of her friends asked why she was accompanying her on such an errand, but Avery brushed them off, saying she needed to order a few new things of her own and added a couple of veiled references to keeping your enemies close.
Elizabeth had been touchy today. Avery understood she was nervous about the hearing tomorrow, but her mood improved during the carriage ride over. No one could remain gloomy in a carriage, and by the time they’d arrived, Jericho and Curtis in tow to be their bodyguards, she was almost chatty. The rain was tapering off, and the sun threatening to come out. It might turn out to be a nice day, after all.
“Where’s Daisy?” Avery asked Curtis.
“With Samantha.”
Avery nodded and allowed him to help her down from the carriage. Curtis helped Elizabeth down, too.
“I always thought I’d get a plain gown,” she announced for all to hear, “but now I’m thinking something really showstopping. A dress that belongs in a fairy tale.”
Avery appreciated the bone Elizabeth was throwing her. Now she could get Alice to design her exactly the kind of gown she wanted. Even though everyone thought that gown was for Elizabeth, they wouldn’t be suspicious if they saw it.
“Whatever.” Avery made a show of pushing past her grumpily to meet Alice, knowing she had to keep up the pretence until she was upstairs in the studio situated above the bays of the old carriage house. Jericho and Curtis would remain outside, standing guard.
Alice’s studio was as bright and cheerful as ever, especially with the sun breaking through the clouds. Avery shrugged out of the jacket she was wearing and shook the skirts of her gown. They were a little damp, but not bad.
Elizabeth stepped into the large, open room behind her and stopped. Avery knew just how she felt. Alice’s creations hung on clothing racks everywhere you looked. Large tables filled the center of the room, some of them empty, waiting to be used to cut fabric or pin patterns. Others held sewing machines of all sorts and kinds. At the far end was an array of mirrors and a changing room.
Elizabeth moved toward the first rack of costumes as if
