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Sutton Place and half the night. It worked. I’d finally fallen asleep, and when I woke up, I realized I’d lost the baby.”
    Years later, there was no mistaking the grief in Emma’s voice.
    â€œI was in pretty bad shape after that and couldn’t go back to school. They got a tutor for me and things calmed down. It was hard to stay mad at Mother. You know how she can be so…well, Poppyish. I still felt betrayed, but I caved. Let her take care of me. The one thing I insisted on was going to boarding school for senior year. I just couldn’t go back with all of you and pretend nothing had happened.”
    â€œCome to work with me and I’ll make you the best hot chocolate in the city.” It was getting too cold for much more walking. Faith had on one of those Norma Kamali OMO sleeping-bag coats, which made youlook like an army-surplus number. Normally, it verged on too much warmth; today, it might as well have been mosquito netting.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Emma said regretfully. “I said I’d join them for dessert. You know Michael’s running for the House next year, and these ladies are very important to his fund-raising campaign. He was very insistent that I go. There was a Post-it on the mirror to remind me this morning.” She stopped speaking and flushed slightly.
    â€œSometimes I mean to go to these things, then forget until it’s too late. I can’t blow this off when he’s made such a big deal out of it. But I can’t leave until you tell me what to do,” she said imploringly.
    Faith was surprised. It was the second time Emma had said this. It seemed so clear.
    â€œYou haven’t committed a crime or done anything anyone could remotely blackmail you over. I suggest you and Michael take the note to the police and let them deal with it. They can help you figure out who might be doing this. There can’t be too many choices. Who would have known both about Fox being your father and the fact that you got pregnant?”
    â€œBut I can’t do that.” Emma stood absolutely still on the path, as rooted as the massive oaks to either side. “Michael would find out.”
    â€œMichael doesn’t know!” Faith gasped.
    â€œOf course not. It really didn’t have anything to do with him, and the Stansteads might have been funny about it.”
    Given the reputation of the Stanstead family—they considered William F. Buckley a flaming, and traitorous, liberal—Faith could understand that Emma might not want her parentage known to her in-laws, or the early pregnancy. But her husband? Wasn’t marriagesupposed to be about sharing—you’re your husband’s best friend and all that? It was one of the reasons Faith had ruled out matrimony so far. She preferred her best friends. They were easier to talk to and made her laugh.
    â€œEmma, this is not a secret you can keep from your husband. He wouldn’t want you to. Blackmail is very, very serious.” Faith thought of Michael Stanstead’s concerned face. Emma had to tell him and together they could decide what to do next. She couldn’t believe he wouldn’t be anything but supportive of his wife and upset at what she had gone through at such an early age. She told Emma about Michael coming into the kitchen.
    â€œHe is so sweet.” Emma appeared to be swayed, but then she stiffened. “You don’t understand, Faith. It can never come out that Nathan Fox was my father. It would completely destroy Michael’s political chances. He’d be the laughingstock of the party—that he didn’t know his wife’s father was one of the most notorious radicals of the century. And it’s even worse now that Daddy’s dead, don’t you see?”
    Unfortunately, Emma made sense. She would be headlines and the tabloids would effectively destroy Stanstead’s chances—for the next election anyway. “Our Man for the