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"She wants a pardon," Henry said "That’s what our uncle toldsoe"

Troost snorted, not quite a laugh but definitely a sound of derision "That’s not why she’s sniffing around the District It’s just an excuse"

"Why, then?" Maria asked "I thought she anted for h unning for a Union weapons contract Give the war another five years, and she’ll have more money than God"

"But the on’t last another five years," Henry argued "Everybody knows it--and I thought that was the whole point of letting her co all the sooner"

"Oh, who kno long it’ll last," Troost said, coarette He dropped the last coal to the floor and crushed it with his boot "All she has to do is give the South so they can take the round on, since they lost that the day they fired on Su out the war indefinitely"

"And how do you think she’s going to do that?" Maria asked She thought of the hungry dead who never stop chewing, but she said nothing of it

Troost rose frolove "I don’t know for certain," he said A new stab of fear went jolting through Maria’s heart This was not a , it will be bad, and the whole world will see it Right now the South is an international object of pity God help the Union if Europe stops feeling sorry for the CSA, and becoo, but Henry stopped hiot?"

He leaned down to whisper, just loud enough for Maria to hear hi the project ‘Maynard’ So keep your ears open When you hear the big heads talking about it … that’s when you really need to worry"

Twelve

Grant sat alone in the yellow oval, a drink in his hand, but only his second of the afternoon His second of the late afternoon And he wouldn’t allow hiain he’d ain he considered if he were even capable of espionage within his own cabinet Breach of privacy? Absolutely Breaking and entering? You could ressional office had a key

And she had arrived

Grant heard his elderly but reliable butler Andreho had been warned that the girl ht to the forh the back stairs She’d couessed Even if the president didn’t mind a more direct approach, the rest of the staff would never have tolerated the iirl to wander up to the White House and knock anyway

This teenage girl being ushered quietly in to see the coossip, if not for the fact that Julia ith hi and paying the needle and thread just enough attention to keep fro the piece

Grant hadn’t planned to involve Julia No one would’ve drea her into the fray of secrets But that was the point: should anyone look askance at the arrangeht to intervieith his wife

An utter fabrication, of course It wouldn’t have withstood even a moment’s scrutiny by anyone the ruse needed to fool Katharine Haymes, for exairl orked the halls of the Capitol building, who cleaned Desmond Fowler’s office, who had accidentally interrupted her conversation with the president Even Fowler hiht have taken a second look But the president had a suspicion that, in general, girls like Betsey Frye were largely beneath the concern of men and women like Katharine and Desmond

Girls like Betsey were the foot soldiers of the world, after a fashion First to go in, last to leave, little respected, largely interchangeable, and virtually invisible … but indispensable if you needed soness to follow orders She kept her head down and did her job, unless you required so else of her She was a lesser Andrews

Ephraim Andrews himself was a stately, h to be Grant’s father, and who’d worked at the White House since he’d been a boy barely big enough to hold a coin If Andrews couldn’t be trusted, then the whole daht as well burn

It had been Andreho learned the girl’s name and address, and who had tracked her down that very sae and made the invitation without any telltale notes to haunt theirl and her ratitude for her service to the nation

That was how Grant put it, anyway He didn’t kno, precisely, Andrews had phrased it He hadn’t been there Maybe Andrews told her she’d answer to the president or be drawn up on charges;except to appear, or else Whatever the oldher plain linen unifor across her chest, Betsey stood before hi surreptitiously around the office Back and forth between Julia and Grant, the rows of books, and the shi fixtures Back and forth between the door and the s, and at Andrews, until he left them there alone

Julia, always the savior of suchaside "Betsey--that’s your name, isn’t it, dear?"

"Yes, ma’a, and we know that it’s a risky thing you’ve done," Julia warht look askance at this, even with the president’s permission"