The Body In The Big Apple by Katherine Hall Page Read Free Book Online Page B

You don’t do that to your kid unless you’re very sure he’s going to be surrounded by Bancrofts and Chadwicks.”
    â€œChoate, if you must know. Anyway, he can’t help his name, and I like it. Very traditional. We played squash together on Sunday and had brunch afterward. We’re going out again Friday.”
    Faith wanted to ask, “Why not Saturday?” The prime spot. But she didn’t wanted to rain on Hope’s parade. Maybe Phelps had a prior commitment—passing around the drinks tray for Mater. Or maybe he was seeing another woman.
    â€œHe looks like Tom Cruise. Very hunky.”
    Once Hope was out of her missionary period, appearance mattered a great deal, and Faith hadn’t seen her with a homely short guy in years. Tall, with thick brown hair and deep green eyes that were the envy of her blue-eyed sister, Hope turned plenty of heads. When both sisters went out together, the effect was more than doubled. Faith was as fair as her sister was dark, but their faces were just similar enough to proclaim a family connection. Fortunately, their mother, Jane, had never considered dressing them alike. Not even the same style in two colors.
    â€œI ran into Emma Stanstead the other night at a job on the East Side.” Faith threw out the line, hoping for some kind of bite.
    â€œHer husband’s going to be president someday. We’ll have a friend in the White House, although it’s hard to imagine Emma there. But he’s a very smart cookie. He’ll get all sorts of people to keep her on track. She’ll just have to smile and produce a few kids, of course.”
    Faith hadn’t thought of this, yet political dynasties meant offspring, and Michael Stanstead seemed like a dynastic kind of guy. Most of the Michael Stansteads of the world were.
    â€œEmma didn’t look pregnant. In fact, she’s thinner than she was the last time I saw her, but she’s still beautiful.”
    â€œI see them in the paper all the time. Where have you been? They’re one of New York’s golden couples.”
    In a kitchen of one sort or another, Faith thought, answering Hope’s question silently.
    â€œSo, he really is being put forward by the party as a serious contender for future presidency?”
    â€œAbsolutely. That’s all I’ve been hearing, and he wouldn’t be bad.”
    Faith and her sister studiously avoided discussing politics, but each was aware that in many elections they were canceling out each other’s votes.
    â€œGet a date and have dinner with us next week. I’m dying for you to meet Phelps.” Hope tried to sound plaintive. She knew it was a busy time for her sister.
    â€œI’ll try. I did meet a cute guy on the bus the other day. He was singing carols.”
    â€œOn the bus! Are you crazy?”
    â€œNot all of us can afford cabs, sweetheart.”
    â€œYou know very well I didn’t mean that. I take the bus sometimes myself. I mean getting involved with a total stranger—a stranger who’s singing to himself.”
    â€œI’ll be careful.” Faith was smiling. There were any number of men who’d be happy to get her call, yet the idea of someone new was appealing. For months, she’d been telling her friends—and herself—that she was too busy to get involved with anyone, but New York during the holidays was so romantic. She pictured the older couple in the horse-drawn carriage that had passed by when Emma and she were in the park. Nice to take one of those carriages under a starry winter sky after along, leisurely meal at one of those bistros on the East Side with a fireplace.
    â€œSo, you’ll let me know when?”
    She hadn’t been listening to her sister. She hadn’t been dicing apples, either.
    â€œI’ll try. If we can’t get together before then, bring him to Chat’s party.”
    â€œBut you’ll be working.”
    â€œAnd