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Ruby smiles at him, appreciative of his consideration. She's grown so used to living her life in the bookshop and in her giant house on the beach that the notion of being overheard by strangers in public places has grown almost foreign to her. "Thank you," she says to him before going on. "Anyway, I feel like I'm back at square one, you know? I've gotten used to pretending that Etienne and Julien don't exist--or at least used to not thinking about them everyday--and suddenly I've got to confront it all again and it feels like a fresh wound. Does that make sense?"
Banks nods steadily, his eyes narrowed like he's taking it all in. "Of course," he says.
Ruby lowers her voice. "I had no idea that by reading his letter to the world, I was effectively cancelling out the insurance policy he'd purchased to leave to Julien. Knowing that might have made me think twice about sharing the information, but...on the other hand, it might not have." She's trying to be honest with herself about this, though it's hard. In the letter that Jack had left for her and that Etienne had hand-delivered to Shipwreck Key the previous summer, after Jack had already been gone for a year, he'd revealed that he'd been suffering from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fast-moving and ultimately fatal neurological disease. His decision to end his own life in such a grand way was surely not an easy one, but in a way, Ruby respected it. After all, what would that look like for a sitting president to wither away before the entire world? And would Jack have even wanted to spend a single day tethered to a life-giving network of machinery? Ruby thinks not. She knew the man well enough to know that he loved being strong, independent, in control. Relying on others for his basic care would have done him in even more quickly than the disease might have.
"That's true," Banks agrees. "You couldn't have known that the insurance policy even existed in the first place, and no one could have expected you to make your decision to share the information based on a potential financial windfall for this boy."
Ruby turns her head and blinks at Banks in surprise; this is an alarming amount of words for him to stay at once, and she almost wants to stay quiet to see if he says more. After a long moment of silence between them she realizes that he's done speaking for now.
"Right," Ruby says, shifting around in her seat. "You're so right. Although I feel like it would have given me pause had I actually known. Or maybe I just want to believe that it would have."
They fly in contemplative silence for several minutes as Ruby looks out the window at the darkening sky and the horizon.
"It's hard for me, Banks," she finally says, tearing her gaze away from the window again, "to fully reconcile the fact that my husband had two families. I know he loved his daughters with all his heart, and I believe that he loved our family. But what about Etienne and Julien? He took out a life insurance policy with this child as the beneficiary--that shows some level of love and care, doesn't it?" The question is clearly rhetorical, and Ruby goes on. "But when he was with them, did he love them the way he loved us? Did he sit around in pajamas and read the paper in bed with--" she falters here briefly, "with Etienne? Did he have a nickname for Julien? Maybe 'squirt' or 'sport' or 'champ' or something?"
Banks remains placid at hearing these questions; his face gives away nothing as he listens.
"I just...I need to wrap my head around it is all," Ruby finishes, waving a hand in the air as she speaks. "I've lost countless nights of sleep to this whole mess, and then I've moved on and started a new life. I've had days, weeks, maybe even a month at a time, where I don't fall down this rabbit hole. But now here I am, wondering all over again how I got here in the first place. And wondering what it says about me that I never knew these people were my husband's second family."
Banks runs a hand from his forehead all the way back over his scalp, and Ruby can see that this is his way of telling her that he's feeling mildly uncomfortable. While his job is to be her Secret Service agent and protector, she knows that he's been privy to a hell of a lot of information. She trusts him implicitly, and furthermore, she respects Banks. Were he to pipe up and tell her his opinion on any of these topics, Ruby would listen with rapt attention.
But he won't; that's not Banks's way. So instead of pressing the issue further, Ruby puts her hand on his wrist and leans her head back against her seat with her eyes closed.
"Do you think we could change it up a little, Banks?"
"Ma'am?"
With a smile, Ruby leans her head to the left and opens her eyes to look at him. "I'm not feeling Stevie Wonder at the moment, but what about 'Bennie and the Jets'? Would you sing with me?"
Banks inhales a laugh that's only audible to Ruby. "You got it, boss," he says. "But if anyone here in First Class gets video of it and it goes viral, I'm quitting my job and moving to Albuquerque."
"It's a deal."
Chapter3
Banks
At about the halfway point of the flight Ruby had settled in, and, as usual, she'd gotten through the rest of the flight without much fanfare, even as slight turbulence had rocked the aircraft. The plane lands at eight-thirty p.m. Paris time. Banks and Ruby are led off the plane first and shepherded through customs without delay.
At the hotel, Banks gets settled into the room adjacent to Ruby's, though he doesn't bother to unpack, as they're getting up early the next morning and taking a train directly to Bordeaux.
There's a knock at the door that connects the two suites, and Banks unlocks his side and opens it. Ruby is standing there, looking stunned and staring at him with wide eyes.
"Do you think there's anything else I don't know?" she asks without preamble.
"I'm sorry, ma'am?" Banks is still dressed in his black pants and the button-up shirt he'd worn to travel, though his shoes are off and he's in socks with the television remote in one hand.
"About Jack," she says, her eyes searching his face. "Do you think there are other women? Do you think Dexter already knows that there are, and he's waiting for me to find out so that he can write about it?"
"I..." Banks is at a loss for words here. "I don't think so," he says honestly.
Dexter North, famed biographer and political writer, has been working on a book about Jack Hudson for the better part of a year now with Ruby's assistance. In fact, his angle is to view the president and his life through the eyes of his widow, and from what Banks can tell, Dexter is an upstanding kind of guy who doesn't pull any punches. The thought that he might be setting Ruby up for some sort of big reveal that would make her look bad feels highly unlikely to Banks. He's always been a good judge of character, and this doesn't feel possible with Dexter.
"Dexter is going to be here in the morning," Ruby says, tugging on a strand of her blonde hair and looking distracted. "I don't mind him coming with me to see Etienne and Julien, but I hate thinking that maybe he's already uncovered anything else that might come as a surprise." She puts a hand to her heart. "I'm not sure I could take it."
"I think I'll cast my vote here for Mr. North's integrity," Banks says. He slips the hand not holding the remote into his pants pocket. "If you'll allow me to say so, my opinion of him is that he's a no nonsense kind of guy, Mrs. Hudson."
"Ruby," she says, shaking her head at Banks like he's lost his mind. "How are you still calling me Mrs. Hudson?"
