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“I don’t know, no appetite, I guess.”
“Hmph! It’s the timber company,” Mrs. Deveraux pointed out. “It killed your father and it’s doing the same with you. Either that, or you’re pining for some man you left back at the college.”
Ashley felt an uncomfortable lump form in her throat. Because Mrs. Deveraux was the only mother Ashley had known since she was in her early teens, the kindly old woman had a way of making Ashley feel like a contrite child. “I wasn’t seeing anyone there.”
“Well, sit . . . sit.” Francine pointed a plump finger toward the table.
“You’re not eating?”
A twinkle lighted the elderly woman’s blue eyes. “Not tonight. I’m going out.”
“With George again?” Ashley accused and clucked her tongue. “Another hot date? My, my, this is getting serious.”
Mrs. Deveraux chuckled but the smile curving her lips at the mention of her beau quickly faded. “You should be the one going out. You’re young and single.”
“Divorced.”
“Makes no difference. So am I.”
Ashley forced a grin she didn’t feel. “When I find the right man—”
“Well, you certainly won’t find him here.” The doorbell chimed and Francine Deveraux smiled. “ You’re too young and pretty to be losing weight over that damned company. Sell it to your cousin, he would like to own it. Then you’ll be a wealthy lady without all these worries.”
“And afterward what would I do?”
“Marry a duke, an earl. . . .”
A senator, Ashley thought wistfully to herself.
The doorbell chimed again.
“I must go. You think about what I’ve said.”
“I will. And you have a wonderful time.”
“Okay. End of lecture.” Mrs. Deveraux kissed Ashley lightly on the cheek and hurried out of the kitchen. As Ashley pierced a piece of the roast with her fork, she heard the door open and the sound of laughter as Mrs. Deveraux greeted George. Within a minute, the door was closed and the great house seemed incredibly empty.
“If only everything were so simple,” she said to herself, forcing the delicious food down her throat. Try as she would, she couldn’t eat half of what Mrs. Deveraux had served.
With a groan, she got up from the table and tossed the remains of her dinner down the garbage disposal. “What a waste,” she muttered before cleaning the dishes and trudging upstairs.
After a leisurely bath, she settled into bed and turned on the television for background noise as she sifted through the pages of a glossy magazine. When the local news came on, Ashley set the magazine aside and turned her attention to the smartly dressed anchorwoman who smiled into the camera.
“Rumor has it that one of the candidates for the senatorial seat vacated by Senator Higgins may be out of the race,” the dark-haired woman stated evenly. Every muscle in Ashley’s body tensed. “Trevor Daniels, a popular, pro-environmentalist candidate and lawyer originally from the Springfield area who later practiced law in Portland, will neither confirm nor deny the rumor that he is considering dropping out of the race.”
“No!” Ashley screamed, bolting upright in the bed.
“Mr. Daniels was leading in the most current polls,” the anchorwoman was stating, “and so his alleged withdrawal from the race before the May primary comes as somewhat of a shock to the community and the state.”
Footage of Trevor, taken very recently at a campaign rally at Oregon State University, showed him talking with the students in the quad under threatening skies. The would-be senator was smiling broadly and shaking hands, looking for the life of him as if he were born to be a politician. Trevor’s chestnut hair ruffled in the breeze and his face was robust-looking and healthy.
Ashley’s heart contracted at the sight of him and she noticed more than she was supposed to see. There was something different about him; a foreign wariness in his eyes, and a slight droop to the broad shoulders supporting the casual tweed jacket. Tanned skin stretched tautly across his high cheekbones and the set of his thrusting jaw somehow lacked conviction. What Ashley noticed were the slightest nuances, which had apparently eluded the press.
“Dear God, what happened?” she whispered while the anchorwoman listed Trevor’s accomplishments and the pitfalls of his campaign.
“. . . not only was Mr. Daniels able to fend off false charges of bribery, which occurred last summer, but just recently he sustained an injury in a single-car accident that nearly took his life. . . .” The anchorwoman continued, giving a little background on Trevor’s life, including the fact that his father had disappeared ten years ago and though his brother, Jeremy, ran the family business of Daniels Logging Company, Trevor had been known for his tough stands on fair timber-cutting practices and wilderness preservation.
“Again,” the woman was saying, “we can neither confirm nor deny this rumor, but if anything further develops on the story, we’ll report it to you later in the program. Mr. Daniels is scheduled to speak at a rally in Pioneer Square tomorrow at noon. Perhaps we’ll all know more at that time.”
