"Well, this is very nice," Abbey said, surveying the luxurious sitting room of the Royal Suite at the hotel.
Jed wandered across to the window with its lush blue and gold drapes and looked out over the rooftops at the spires and turrets of the Grand Place in the centre of Brussels. "The view's all wrong," he said.
Abbey took off the jacket of the dark purple suit that she'd changed into on the plane, eased off her shoes and joined him at the window. "What's wrong with it?"
"It's not Galway Bay," he said softly.
She slid her hand into his and he looked round and smiled at her, then he gave a small shrug. "Anyway, what did you and the girls talk about on the plane while I was meeting with Sam?"
"Not a lot really – we kept getting interrupted with the stewards and drinks and lunch. I asked Liz if she wanted to talk about Doug but she said to leave it till later. They wanted to know all about the cottage and where we'd been."
"Did you tell them about–?"
"No – no, of course not – I told them we'd been to Ballykane – but nothing – not the rest of the story. I knew that you would want to do that."
Jed nodded. "Yes – they do need to know, don't they? That their grandfather wasn't – that Eddy was their real grandfather. I'll have to choose the right moment for that."
"Yeah. It'll be a shock for them – but they'll be okay with it. Only Liz can remember your Mom – Ellie was only three when she died, so she won't remember her. And they didn't really see much of John Bartlet either."
"Only when we had to," Jed admitted. "Birthdays and Thanksgiving and so on." He looked at her. "I'm not sure that I want to go into – well, into my childhood – with them though."
"They know, Jed – well, they know a little bit."
"You told them?"
"Only a little. It was a long time ago – one Christmas. Ellie was about eight and she asked me why you got along so much better with my parents than you did with Grandpa Bartlet. She'd noticed that you laughed and joked around so much with my Dad, but that you were totally different with John."
"Yeah, Ellie's the one who would notice things like that, isn't she? What did you tell her?"
"I sat Ellie and Liz down together – Zoey was too young at that point – and explained that John hadn't treated you very well when you were a child – that he'd been very strict and stern – and that as a result you didn't really have a very good relationship with him."
"And they accepted that?"
"Yes. Maybe as they got older, they read between the lines more, but they've never said or asked anything more. Zoey's never asked either, so maybe Ellie or Liz told her."
"Okay."
Abbey squeezed his hand. "Okay. So what meetings do you have this afternoon?"
Jed glanced at his watch. "Peter Rosen at four, Tom Grundy and the House Committee at five, and the Senators at six. I should be finished by seven."
"You're free after that?"
"Unless Sam wants to go over the speech for tomorrow afternoon. I've given him my draft."
"You go and freshen up then and I'll just call the girls and ask them to come up here later – I'm sure we can have fun with that champagne and the fruit and those delicious Belgian chocolates over there on the table!"
Jed gave her a quick kiss, slipped off his jacket then headed for the bedroom. Just as Abbey was about to pick up the phone, he called to her. "Abbey – come here!"
Frowning slightly, Abbey went through to the bedroom, her eyes only briefly taking in the chocolate brown and soft beige of the décor, and stepped into the bathroom. Jed was standing there with a broad grin on his face.
"What's the matt – oh!" There at one side of the large marble bathroom was a sunken hot tub. "Oh wow," she said and sidled up to him. "Maybe I'd better hide the champagne and the chocolates from the girls – we might need them later?"
"What's wrong with now?" Jed asked and she saw the glint in his eye.
"Because you have a meeting with Peter Rosen in – what? – just over twenty minutes – and if I'm gonna go into that hot tub with you, I need more time than that!"
He shot her a mischievous look. "More than three minutes?" he asked and then laughed as she started to blush.
She moved away from him before the thought became too tempting. "Cold shower time, Jed!"
He pulled her back and brought his mouth down on hers with a soft kiss that threatened to inflame her, and she had to push him away. "Cold shower, gumdrop!" she called with a laugh as she scooted out of the bathroom.
With a sigh and a longing look at the hot tub, Jed started to take off his shirt and pants. "How am I supposed to concentrate on all those meetings now that I know I have a Jacuzzi waiting for us?" he called after her.
"Same as you always do, babe!"
Abbey went back into the sitting room, then picked up the phone and dialled the number of the girls' room. It was Zoey who answered. "Hi, Mom, how's your room?"
"Suite," Abbey corrected her, "we're in the Royal Suite – complete with champagne, fruit and choc–" She stopped as she heard a loud yelp from the bathroom.
"What was that?" Zoey asked.
"That–" Abbey started laughing. "That was your father stepping into a cold shower."
"You don't have any hot water?" Zoey asked in surprise.
"Zoey, your father's having a cold shower – think about it!"
"Oh!" Zoey said, and Abbey could visualise her daughter's face going red. "Oh – right."
"Sorry, sweetheart, I didn't mean to embarrass you. Anyway, do you want to come up here? I need someone to share the champagne and chocolates with me once your Dad goes off to all his meetings. Around four o'clock, okay?"
"Okay, that sounds good. See you soon then."
Abbey was inspecting the contents of the private bar in the suite and making a mental note to order some more champagne for later on that evening when Jed came through from the bedroom.
She looked round at him mischievously. "How was the shower?"
"Cold," he said ruefully. He glanced at his watch then picked up his briefcase. "I gotta go, honey – I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Are we eating in here this evening?"
"It's up to you – I think some of the others may be going out on the town."
"We'll eat here," she said with a smile.
Jed grinned. "Good!" He leant over to kiss her cheek and then he was gone. Abbey went through to the bedroom to unpack their bags and to hang up Jed's suit bags.
It was a few minutes after four o'clock when Liz, Ellie and Zoey burst into the suite, all of them giggling like teenagers.
"What's so funny?" Abbey asked, returning to the sitting room.
"We've just been down to the shops in the lobby–" Liz began.
"And there's a really cute lingerie shop–" Zoey burst out laughing again.
Ellie struggled to control her giggles. "And you'll never guess who we saw in there!"
"Just so long as it wasn't your father, I think I'm unshockable."
"It was that stuffy old Senator what's-his-name!" said Zoey.
"Anderson," Liz prompted.
"And we couldn't see properly – but it looked like he was buying a – a–" Ellie couldn't go on for laughing.
"A black lacy teddie!" Zoey shrieked with laughter again, Liz and Ellie were both shaking and Abbey too started to laugh.
"Well, well, so there's life in the old dog after all!" she commented.
"Mom, he must be at least eighty!"
"If your Dad is still buying me black lacy teddies when he's eighty, I'll be highly flattered."
Zoey stopped laughing and looked at her. "Still buying you – you mean, he–"
Abbey shrugged. "Well, I doubt that he would go into a hotel lingerie shop himself – but he has been known to send one of the staff to that very nice shop on M Street."
"Not 'Victoria's Secret'?" said Ellie, wide-eyed.
"You're kidding!" Liz gasped.
"No I'm not – well, okay, that only happened once, the rest of time he ordered things from the catalogue." She laughed at their faces. "Oh, come on, girls, get real! Your father's a man, for heavens' sake – with very healthy levels of testosterone! And I'm saying no more than that!" She turned towards the bar. "Okay, you want champagne or wine?"
"Champagne!" said Liz and Zoey simultaneously.
"Iced water for me," said Ellie ruefully.
"Good girl," Abbey said with an understanding smile. "Just think how good you'll feel when the rest of us all have outsize hangovers tomorrow!"
"Yeah," Ellie said, unconvinced.
"So come on, guys, let's decide what shops we're going to visit tomorrow and what we want to buy–"
After they'd spent ages discussing the merits and demerits of various designers, fabrics, styles and colours, Abbey remembered that she needed to look at the dinner menu. "Do you want to eat here with us this evening?" She saw Liz and Zoey glance at each other. "Is there a problem?"
"What time are you going to eat?" Liz asked.
"Probably about seven thirty. You got other plans?"
"Well–" Liz hesitated.
"Sam said that he and a few of the staff were going to a really good bar near the Grand Place – they've been there before," Zoey explained.
"I'm not going," Ellie said. "I didn't get a lot of sleep on the plane – I'm having an early night."
"What time are they going out?" Abbey asked.
"About nine o'clock," Liz replied.
"No problem then – I'll order dinner for seven thirty, that will give you plenty of time. Now where's the menu?"
While they studied the menu, Zoey went off to the bathroom, and then they heard her call out, "Oh wow!"
As Liz and Ellie looked round, Abbey laughed. "I guess Zoey has just discovered the hot tub."
Ellie sighed. "Something else I'm not allowed!"
"Not in the first trimester, no," Abbey agreed. "What are you now, Ellie? Seven weeks? And you said that the scan last week showed the heartbeat?"
"Yes – I wanted to wait for that before I told anyone."
"It's a very good sign. In fifty percent of pregnancies the heartbeat can't be seen until at least the seventh or eighth week. Did you ask about flying?"
"Yes, of course I did, but once my obstetrician knew I was going on Air Force One and there would actually be a bed for me to sleep in – as well as a full medical unit on board – she just laughed and said, 'You're as safe there as you are down here on the ground then'."
"We're going to have to watch you on the return flight – that's a daytime flight. You'll need to–"
"It's okay, Mom – I know all the advice – wear flight socks, walk around a lot, drink plenty of water. I'll be fine."
Zoey came back into the sitting room. "Wanna go skinny dipping, you two?"
"I'm not allowed to – but I'll sit and watch," Ellie said.
"Is it okay, Mom?" Zoey asked.
"Be my guest! And Ellie, you come out of the bathroom if it gets too warm in there."
"I will – stop worrying, Mom!"
"Mothers always worry – it comes with the role." Abbey said with a smile.
"You coming, Liz?" Zoey asked.
"In a minute."
As Zoey and Ellie went back through the bedroom to the bathroom, Abbey looked across at her eldest daughter. "You want to talk, Liz?"
TBC
