The Senator's Wife Read Online Free PDF Page A

her fantasies, in her plans . She’d gotten what she wanted, all right—but it didn’t feel as good as she had imagined it would.
    Today it didn’t feel good at all.
    At the center of her charmed life, there was a gnawing emptiness. The realization made Ronnie feel sick all over again. “I can’t go back out there,” Ronnie said, staring at herself in the mirror, her fingers curlingaround the rim of the sink. The used paper towel fell from her nerveless fingers. “I can’t.”
    “I’d say your engagements were just effectively canceled for the rest of the day.” Quinlan removed the earrings from the stream of water and wrapped them and the necklace in a paper towel. “We need to get you checked out by a doctor, for one thing.”
    “Oh, God, it’s going to be in all the papers,” Ronnie said, shivering as she thought of the headlines that were sure to result. It wasn’t her fault, none of it was her fault, but nevertheless she was going to be made to look bad, she knew. They always made her look bad: newspapers, TV, magazines, whatever. The second Mrs. Honneker, they called her. There was always the hint of a sneer.
    Quinlan started to reply, but whatever he had been going to say was lost as the door to the rest room burst open.
    “Ronnie!” Thea stood poised on the threshold for an instant, backlighted by the brilliant sunshine outside. Her gaze found Ronnie, and she darted into the small rest room, followed by what seemed like a veritable army of people: Rose, a trio of state troopers, fair officials with their orange badges, and five or six others.
    Turning to face them, Ronnie felt her heart start to pound. They were crowding around her; who were all these people?
    “Oh, God, we didn’t know where you’d gotten to! Are you okay?” Thea clutched her arm, anxiously looking her up and down. Ronnie took a deep, calming breath and started to answer in the affirmative.
    A camera flash went off in Ronnie’s face before shecould get out so much as a word. Reporters. Of course. They were like buzzards, drawn by instinct to the scene of carnage. Where the scavenger birds scented death and decay, the scavenger press scented the possibility of lurid headlines.
    “Oh, no!” She threw up an arm to shield herself from the flashing lights in an almost exact reenactment of the gesture she had used to block the paint thrower’s aim. The irony of that was not lost on her.
    In both cases she was defending herself from assault.
    “Mrs. Honneker, can you tell us …”
    The rest of the question was lost to Ronnie as they all crowded closer, pushing her back against the sink. The hard enamel dug into her spine. Her stomach churned anew; her knees threatened to give way. Flashbulbs exploded around her like bottle rockets on the Fourth of July. Words bombarded her from all sides, so many she could hardly make sense of them. She felt like an animal at bay.
    “Ronnie, oh my God, I can’t believe what happened, should I call an ambulance?” Thea touched Ronnie’s dress just above her hipbone, then drew her hand back and stared at the red paint on her fingertip, her expression horrified.
    “No,” Ronnie said, dry-mouthed. “I’m all right.”
    Cameras continued to flash. The questions being hurled at her were growing louder.
    “Mrs. Honneker, we’re so sorry.…” A fair official pressed close to apologize. Behind him, a strobe light was being set up and turned on. Blinking, Ronnie threw up a hand, temporarily blinded by its brilliance. “Oh, please.…”
    “Leave her alone,” Thea said, turning protectively to face the cameras.
    “Mrs. Honneker, about the incident …” Another reporter. Another camera. Ronnie shook her head. All she wanted to do was escape, but there was no place for her to go. She was backed against the sink, surrounded, trapped.
    “I can’t—”
    “Please leave her alone,” Thea repeated, louder this time in an effort to be heard over the din, turning with Ronnie to face this new