Circumstantial Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

lurked.
    “What else do you know about the book?” he asked roughly, a hint of irritation in his tone that he even had to talk about it.
    “I know Hal had a title in mind. He wanted to call it An Honorable Man. ”
    The corner of his mouth quirked slightly. “I’m assuming the title was intended to be ironic.”
    “I’m sure. Hal wasn’t one for hagiographies, and I doubt he would have been so excited about having found out something wonderful about Bridges.”
    “There are certainly enough people out there singing the guy’s praises.”
    Stone should know. He’d once been one of those providing the almost universally positive press Bridges had received over the years, a rarity for a politician, to be sure.
    “You’ve met him,” she said. “What did you think of him?”
    Stone appeared to consider the question. “Honestly, I thought he was a decent guy. I mean, he was a politician to the core, and there’s no way to really get a sense of who they are beneath all the smiles and polish. But if I’d had to put money down, I would have said he was a good guy. Just a gut reaction.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Guess it just shows, you never can tell.”
    “No, you can’t.” Heck, before any of this happened, she probably would have voted for Richard Bridges herself. The guy had the whole package. In his early fifties, he was handsome, but not so much to turn off men or be dismissed as a pretty boy. He had a quick wit and charm to spare, enough that his appeal crossed party lines, winning opponents to his side while fighting passionately for what he believed in. There’d never been the slightest hint of scandal around him. He’d been married for more than thirty years to the same woman, with whom he had three children. From all appearances, he seemed to be the very thing Hal’s title had implied. When Hal had revealed that he’d uncovered something about Bridges, declaring it with a level of glee that told her it had to be something major, she’d actually experienced some doubt that Hal could have found what he thought he had. Richard Bridges had seemed to be that rarest of things—a good man. Unfortunately, like so many others, it seemed he was merely too good to be true.
    “Mr. Stone—”
    “It’s Jason,” he said bluntly. “Given the circumstances we might as well be on a first-name basis.”
    “All right,” Audrey agreed. “Jason then. I’ve been thinking about it. Bridges has spent most of his adult life in the spotlight, with much of it thoroughly covered by the press, especially once it became clear he was going to run for president. If there was anything to be found in his past from the past several decades, someone would have done so by now. He’s been gearing up for this presidential run for years, so I have to believe he’s been careful, which probably rules out something recent. That leaves his early years as the most likely place where he’d have a skeleton in his closet. I know Hal intended to cover Bridges’s full life story in the book, including his childhood and teen years. It makes sense that if he found something, it was in that period.”
    Stone took a drink from his cup. “That meshes with what Hal told me, how he wanted to learn more about Bridges’s early life. I actually don’t know much about it beyond the obvious. Who his father is, where he comes from.”
    Yes, those were pieces of information few people didn’t know about. Richard Bridges was actually Richard Bridges, Jr., his father, Dick, having been a long-serving senator from the commonwealth of Virginia before him. The Bridges clan had long been powerful and politically connected in the state. Dick Bridges had had presidential ambitions of his own decades ago, only to find he couldn’t expand his popularity far enough beyond his home state. His only son far exceeded him in terms of charisma, and now appeared on the brink of fulfilling the dream his father had failed to realize.
    The family homestead was