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Ash glanced over at me "Would you prefer sherry? The tea is Earl Grey"

"Tea’s fine"

Ash poured three cups of tea while Helen selected a little plate of cookies and finger sandwiches for each of us White bread spread with butter, sprigs of watercress peep-ing out Wheat bread with curried chicken salad Rye layered with herbed crea about the ritual attention to detail thator whether my social status was equivalent to theirs

Ashley flashed me a smile when she handed me my tea "Mother and I live for this," she said, di

"Oh, yes," Helen said, with a sreat vice and I intend to sin incessantly as long as hed and chatted about old ti from the commonplace His father had owned a hardware store in town for years Her father was a stone-mason Each had inherited a modest sum which they’d pooled to form Wood/Warren sometime in the forties The ames as far as they were concerned Woody was dead serious about the run-ning of the company, but the profits had seemed like a happy accident Helen said he’d carried nearly two million dollars’ worth of life insurance on hi it a hot joke as it was the only investuaranteed payoff

At 5:00, Ash excused herself, leaving the two of us alone

Helen’s manner became brisk "Now tell ht her up-to-date Ash had apparently filled her in, but Helen wanted to hear it all again from me

"I want you to work for me," she said promptly when I finished

"I can’t do that, Helen For starters, my attorney doesn’t want me anywhere near Lance, and I certainly can’t accept employ paid off"

"I want to knoho’s behind this," she said

"So do I But suppose it turns out to be one of you I don’t mean to offend, but we can’t rule that out"