14. Champion

Bonnie was taken too much by surprise, initially, to do more than stare at Freya in confusion, but she realized almost immediately what had prompted the older woman's remark, and only wondered she had not had the foresight to expect this confrontation. Freya had always been a fiercely protective mother.

"Yes, I see you understand," Freya went on. "You may accuse me — quite reasonably — of maternal bias where Trev is concerned, but I am proud of my son, Bonnie, and I fail to see how he could possibly have fallen short of your expectations. I don't claim he's perfect. He has flaws like everyone else, but he also has so much more to offer than most men. He's handsome, isn't he? Engaging, intelligent, ambitious, honest, good-hearted…?"

"He is," Bonnie broke in. "He's all of those things. And of course, I love him. I do."

Freya's ash-blond brows knit together. "Then, what's this all about? Why reject his proposal?"

"I… I don't know. Really, Freya. I'm the first to admit it makes no sense…"

"And you've always been such a sensible girl! That's why I find your refusal so difficult to fathom." Freya shook her head, as if, by doing so, the puzzle pieces in her mind might reorder themselves into a recognizable pattern. "I don't need to tell you that the Senator and I could not be more pleased by Trev's choice. If we'd taken it upon ourselves to arrange a marriage for him, we could hardly have done better. You must know that we already think of you as part of the family. As Trev's mother, I would try, for his sake, to love any girl he wants to marry, but I am already fond of you, Bonnie, for your own sake. I imagine all mothers have misgivings about their ability to deal successfully with prospective daughters-in-law, but there's no fear of that with you. We get along splendidly."

Bonnie could identify only too well with Freya's perplexity. "I feel the same. As far as in-laws go, I couldn't ask for better than you and the Senator. You have never been anything but welcoming and kind."

"So, that's not the issue, at least." She raised her glass, and took a small sip of wine. "From what Trev told us, your 'no' isn't final. Is that right? He's optimistic you'll come around, given time."

"And I may, Freya, truly. It's a definite possibility. For the moment, though, all I know for sure is, I'm not quite ready to say 'yes'."

Freya took this in, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I appreciate that you're still quite young, both of you. The Senator and I didn't marry until I was nearly thirty and he was a bit more. You may feel that you have years yet before you need to make a commitment, but what you may not be taking into account is that it's in Trev's best interests to settle down sooner rather than later."

"It is? How so?"

"Trev has never made any secret of his political aspirations. You know he means to be primed to take over his father's seat when the Senator leaves office. That time may be upon us more quickly than we anticipated."

Bonnie's heart sank within her. "Oh, Freya, no! Is the Senator ill?" She pictured Trenton Wyndham-Pryce as he'd worked his way around the atrium, glad-handing the movers and shakers in the cocktail crowd: a tall, slim man of upright bearing whose craggy features could be transformed in an instant by his charismatic smile. "He looked to be in the peak of health when I saw him earlier!"

Freya patted Bonnie's hand where it rested on the table next to her untouched glass. "Bless you, sweetheart, the Senator doesn't suffer from anything more serious than heartburn, the politician's occupational hazard. No, there's talk of his being asked to run for Senator Aubrey's seat when he retires five years from now."

"Of course!" Bonnie rapped herself smartly on the forehead. "Gramps and the Senator were just discussing that very thing."

"Were they, indeed! How interesting… Well, you see what this means for Trev, don't you? He can no longer afford to wait very long to get married. As you must know, it's a marked disadvantage for a candidate to be single. Voters seem to judge an unmarried man as less serious and reliable, less relatable than a married opponent. A single man's private life comes under much greater scrutiny, too. The feeling is, if he's over thirty and has never been married, something must be wrong with him. And, I'm sorry to say, there are still benighted people in Virginia who won't vote for any candidate they have the least suspicion might be gay."

Bonnie shook her head at this sad state of affairs. "That's incredible, in this day and age."

"People have their prejudices," Freya said, philosophically. "Voters favor men in traditional marriages, and, if there are adorable children in the picture, so much the better. Virginians love nothing more than seeing their core values of home and family acted out for them on the political stage. It's a great advantage, of course, if both husband and wife are personable and attractive, and if, in addition, they're descendants of American royalty, whether of the political, scientific or literary stripe, well, let's just say: that's a hard combination to beat.

"Mark my words, Trev will go far on his own merits; he doesn't have to marry well to succeed. He chose you out of love, and not for what you can bring to the table, politically-speaking. The beauty of it is, though, that you bring so much: your natural charm and loveliness, your intelligence, your style, your open heart and willingness to give more than you take. You come from not one, but two, high-profile, well-respected families, and as a consequence, you've learned how to handle yourself in the limelight. There's a long tradition of service and excellence in your family, as there is in ours, and I know you'll do that tradition proud. It's my dearest hope you'll do it by Trev's side, because the two of you together? You'd be as unstoppable in Richmond, and later in Washington, as you were as teenagers on the tennis court." Freya, at last out of breath, blushed a pale pink and laughed a bit self-consciously. "Listen to me, would you? Must be my PR background come back to haunt me!"

"You must have been very good at your job," Bonnie said, somewhat overwhelmed by the mix of flattery and argument in Freya's long speech. "You're quite… eloquent." She helped herself, finally, to a large gulp of wine.

"What I want to stress is, you don't have the luxury of time you probably expected. It would be unfair, and possibly damaging to his career, to make Trev wait, say, more than a year. If you can't commit relatively soon, you should let him go, and give him the chance to find someone else. Believe me when I say, for all our sakes, I hope it doesn't come to that." She reached across the table, and curling her fingers around Bonnie's, gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. "Enough of that, now. We'd best get back. Your grandfather will be wondering what's become of you."

Bonnie readily abandoned her half-full wine glass and started back to the banquet hall at Freya's side. They had gone a few steps when the older woman slipped her arm through Bonnie's, and smiled at her ruefully. "You must think me a meddling old crone."

"Of course not, Freya! Never that." Unbidden, her mind produced the image of a woman scarpering off on dangerously-high heels and leaving her little boy with a total stranger. "Trev's very lucky to have a mother like you. Not every son has a champion."

Freya hugged Bonnie's arm to her. "I'm so glad you understand, my dear. I would hate for anything I've said to cause a rift between us. Still friends?"

"Friends," Bonnie confirmed without hesitation. They continued on, arms linked, and so in charity one with the other that Bonnie felt emboldened to ask, "Freya, did you accept the Senator the first time he proposed to you?"

Freya chuckled softly and slanted a laughing look Bonnie's way. "What makes you think he did the asking?"

It was clear to Bonnie, upon re-entering the dining room, that neither her grandfather nor Senator Aubrey had the least awareness of her over-long absence; they were as intent on each other and as thoroughly engaged as when she had left them. It was Trev, instead, who sat sideways in his seat, anxiously craning his neck to see over the diners blocking his view of the entryway. A curvaceous blonde, perched daintily on the edge of Bonnie's chair, was chatting away at him, but he appeared to barely hear her. As Bonnie came into sight, he relaxed noticeably, but the concern did not entirely vanish from his face. His eyes darted worriedly from her to his mother and back again, wordlessly asking: Is everything okay? Are you all right? She grinned in reassurance, and it was only then he smiled, relieved. He was on his feet, extending an arm, when she reached the table. "I was about to send out the cavalry," he told her.

Bonnie fit her shoulder under his, slipped an arm around his waist, and kissed his cheek. "No need. Just a little girl talk."

The blonde had jumped up, too, and now held a beautifully-manicured hand out to her. "Savannah Greeley, Miss Booth-Hodgins," she said, with a distinct Southern drawl. "Campaign volunteer. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Miss Greeley's grip was pleasantly firm, her manner open and bright. "Same here," Bonnie said, taking to her at once. Grammy T would have congratulated the slightly smaller woman on her perfectly symmetrical features: the gracefully-arched brows, the large blue eyes, the high cheekbones, the generous mouth with its even, straight teeth. The nose was, perhaps, a little too broad across the base, and the chin a trifle too pointed for truly stunning looks, but that was to nit-pick what was a very pretty face by any standards. "I have the strangest feeling we've met before, Miss Greeley. If so, I hope you'll forgive my not remembering."

"Please, call me Vanna, and not to worry: we've never met. You probably recognize me from a few print ads I did several years ago."

"Vanna's being modest, Bonnie. She's a former Miss Virginia Teen, and first runner-up for Miss Virginia a few years ago. She's been the face of Gourmet Virginia Peanuts, Rosy's Heirloom Tomatoes, and similar products. The campaign's fortunate to have her."

"You're very kind to say so," Vanna said sweetly, "and I'll return the favor by taking myself off, and letting you get on with your dinner. I hope we have the chance to meet again real soon, Miss Booth-Hodgins…"

"Bonnie, please!"

"All right, then: Bonnie. You all enjoy your evening, now!"

"She seems very nice," Bonnie said, as Vanna, her fuschia bandage dress glittering with each sway of her hips, tripped lightly away.

"Vanna?" Trev helped Bonnie with her chair, and, slipping back into his own seat, spread his napkin over his lap. "She's a real go-getter, that one, a great asset to the campaign. But, never mind all that. What I really want to know is: what have you and my mother been getting up to behind my back?"

Bonnie smiled as mysteriously as any Sphinx, and said not a word.