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when she arrived. Olivia changed clothes and hung her lavender suit in the closet. On cue, room service delivered her afternoon tea and she settled onto the sofa with a cup of Earl Grey and her datebook. She had a leather appointment book,also Hermes, that had been a gift from Robert years before. She carried it everywhere with her even though she used a smartphone for everything else. Her appointments, like her thank you notes, were handwritten. She liked paging through to see where she was going and where she had been. She checked the date, March 1. She had a great deal to do before the event on the fifth. In years past, she would have booked appointments for the afternoon of her arrival but at age seventy-one she simply didn’t have the stamina for it. She finished her tea and went to the bedroom for the afternoon power nap that had become a regular habit for her the year before. She found that it gave her the energy she would need for the long evenings of charity events and it helped keep her mind sharp.
    As she drew the drapes she thought for the millionth time what a beautiful view the room had. She never tired of looking at it. Olivia approached her naps as temporary stops so she never turned down the linens. She reclined on top of the white duvet and pulled the throw blanket over her. She let her mind wander over the details she still needed to arrange, but before long sleep claimed her as it did every afternoon, no matter how busy she was.
    When she awoke half an hour later she didn’t feel as refreshed as she would have liked. Traveling was beginning to take more of a toll on her, but she wouldn’t allow herself the indulgence of any more time in bed.
    She got up and went back to the windows to open the drapes. As she reached for the pull cord she heard a loud noise that was so out of place it startled her. It reminded her of the sound of old car horns from the early 1900s.
Ahruuuuuuuga!
That thought had just crossed her mind when she pulled back the blackout drape and looked down onto Pennsylvania Avenue. The honking continued as a traffic jam had developed at the corner of 14 th Street. Traffic jams in Washington were ascommon as lobbyists, but Olivia Fordham had never seen one made up entirely of Model Ts.

C HAPTER 6
    CATHERINE PARKER
    1865
    The carriage Mr. Chase had arranged for Catherine didn’t take her to the offices of an international business law firm. It was apparent right away that the only business that seemed to matter in this town was the kind that got worked out on the battlefield. Soldiers were everywhere in their blue wool uniforms. As they marched she could see the weariness in their steps. The carriage stopped in front of a lovely three-story townhouse and the driver helped her down.
    “Whose house is this?”
    “I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t know the answer to your question. I was given this address and told to drop you off here.” He held out a piece of paper and when she saw the address written on it she was confused. It was the address of the law firm she was supposed to visit. She had researched the firm well and had seen photos of their posh, modern offices with stunning views of the Capitol. Looking toward the Capitol she could tell it was the same basic view, but this was no office building. She told the driver to wait and walked to the front door. Reaching up, she knocked loudly with the brass doorknocker that was shaped like a lion with a giant ring in his mouth. When no one answered she started to turn back toward the driver and that’s when she saw it. There was a name on a placard beside the door.
    Lawrence Cameron
, read the name. Catherine’s head swam as she tried to make sense of that name, at that address, and the realization that she was supposed to meet with Lawrence Cameron IV at that very same address this morning before the whole world had gone topsy-turvy. The carriage driver looked concerned as his passenger walked slowly out of the gate with a glazed look on