"I couldn't tell you much on the phone, I just want to explain what happened."

"Let me get you another drink."

"I tried, Mom, I really did try."

"I know you did, honey."

"After the thing with Naima, he promised – he promised it would never happen again."

Abbey went back to the couch with the two glasses of champagne and Liz took hers and gulped a little of it. Then she went on, "But it couldn't have been more than a month before he was in bed with Paula Richards. She was his campaign secretary – another blonde of course – maybe he was on the rebound from Naima – but of course I was the last to know." She paused and then gave a frustrated sigh. "I supported him all through that campaign, I did everything I could – that last month before the election I think I went to every town in the district for him – and I had no idea, though I guess everyone else on the campaign staff knew what was going on."

"So when did you find out?"

"Election Day."

"How?"

"I walked into the campaign office – and they were there – and it was obviously not a kiss on the cheek between friends–"

"Oh, sweetheart–" Abbey's heart ached for her. "What did you do?"

Liz shrugged. "I just walked out again!"

"So what happened after that?"

"Well, as you know, it was a crushing defeat – and while we were watching the numbers coming in, I realised that I was thinking 'I'm glad he's gonna lose, I'm glad.'"

Abbey shook her head slowly. "I never realised – I knew that you looked shell-shocked that night – but I thought it was because of the numbers – I just never realised–"

Liz looked at her. "I couldn't tell you anything that night – I hadn't even faced Doug with it then – but I knew that it was all over, that I couldn't forgive him a second time."

"So when did you tell him?"

"The next day, after you'd gone back to Washington. I told him that it was finished, that I was going to divorce him – but that there was no way he was gonna leave before January 20th."

"Your Dad was very touched when he knew about that, you know."

"Yeah – well, that was the least I could do. I just felt so guilty that I'd tried to get Dad up to New Hampshire to support him when I knew – or at least I guessed – that the press knew about his affair with Naima – and that was when I didn't have a clue about Paula – I'm not sure if the press also knew about that at the time. But the whole thing could have blown up in our faces – in Dad's face. I don't know what the hell I was thinking of. And now I owe CJ an apology."

"CJ?"

"Yeah, I blasted her after she made Doug to go the Political Affairs Office and tell them that he didn't want Dad in New Hampshire. She was protecting Dad, I wasn't – I was so intent on trying to save my marriage that it blinded me to everything else. And now I've got to live with that – but anyway, that was why I told Doug he was not going to leave until after Dad had left office."

"And he agreed?"

Liz gave a short laugh. "The way I told him, he didn't have any other option!"

Abbey smiled. "That's my girl! But it can't have been easy?"

"The last two months have been hell. You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife – and I knew he was still seeing Paula. We were living in the same house but we were a million miles apart. I'm surprised you didn't you notice it at Christmas."

Abbey thought back. "You covered it pretty well, actually."

"Yeah, well, I told Doug that he had to be a better actor than any Hollywood star for the duration of Christmas."

"Maybe he's got a future in Hollywood then?"

Liz laughed, though not without a shade of bitterness. "I guess he'd love all the bimbos there."

"Oh Lizzie," Abbey said with a sigh, then, "So how do you feel about it all now?"

"Relieved – well, relieved the hell of the last two months is over. But sad too – and guilty."

"Guilty? Why?"

"Because I failed."

Abbey drew in a deep breath. "Liz, the failure wasn't yours, it was Doug's. You fought for your marriage, Doug didn't."

"I guess it's pretty hard to accept that your marriage has failed. But you wouldn't know about that, would you? You and Dad–"

"Liz, my marriage to your father has nothing to do with this."

"Oh yes it has."

"What d'you mean?"

"Don't you think that all three of us want a marriage like yours? After nearly forty years you still love each other – and I don't mean just the comfortable life-partner thing – I mean you're still in love with each other – we all know that."

"I've been lucky, Liz."

Liz shook her head. "It isn't luck, Mom – it's something very special."

Abbey looked at her daughter and nodded. "Yes, it is. And I am just so sorry that it hasn't worked out the same for you and Doug."

"Doug's not Dad, and I'm not you."

"No, you're not me, but you are your Dad – you're the politician in your family, not Doug."

"Dad said that to me once."

"So why did you let Doug run?"

"Because it was what he wanted."

Abbey gave a small shrug. "Liz, he wanted it for all the wrong reasons," she said quietly, then drew in her breath. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that, it's not my place to criticise Doug."

Liz looked back at her. "It's not a criticism – it's the truth."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I guess I knew that all along."

"Yet you agreed – you supported him–"

Liz nodded. "He was my husband. It was what he wanted. I thought we were a team – that we could pool our different skills – that this was something that we could do together – as husband and wife. And even after Naima, I thought we could salvage something." She tightened her mouth and struggled for a moment, forcing back tears. "I really wanted our kids to be able to look up to him – just as we all did – do – to Dad."

The tears suddenly welled up in Liz's eyes and Abbey's face contorted with emotion. "Oh Lizzie–" She stood up and moved across to the couch where Liz was sitting, and put her arm round her.

Liz leant against her. "It was the second affair, Mom – I knew then that I'd never be able to trust him again. I couldn't send Paula away like I did with Naima, but I knew that even if he broke with her, there'd be another Naima or another Paula."

Abbey nodded slowly as she held her daughter tightly. "Yeah – yeah, you're probably right there." She let the silence go on for a few moments then said, "So what now, sweetheart?"

Liz lifted her head from her mother's shoulder. "I guess I go on being a mother to my kids – and maybe, just maybe, when Gus goes to High School, I'll run for the Statehouse."

Abbey's squeezed her arm. "And you would run for the right reasons, Lizzie. You've already gotten yourself involved in issues and groups that show you care deeply about people."

Liz managed a small smile. "Is that an inherited trait then?"

Abbey looked at her for a long moment and then nodded. "Yes, it is – and more than you actually realise at the moment." Not just your father, she thought, but your grandfather too.

"What d'you mean?"

"I'll let your Dad tell you more about that. But for now, how about you just go and join your sisters and have some fun – they sound as if they're having a ball in the bathroom!"

Liz grinned suddenly at the shrieks of laughter coming from the bathroom as Ellie and Zoey shared some joke. She looked back at her mother. "I'm okay, Mom, honestly I am. I can deal with this."

Abbey nodded. "I know you can. You're so strong, Liz – and somewhere, sometime, you're gonna find someone who values your strength – and doesn't just lean on it."

"Yeah, maybe." Liz made to stand up but then sat down again. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can."

Liz hesitated. "You can tell me it's none of my business, that I've overstepped the line – but after – after Zoey was kidnapped and we found out about Abdul Shareef and you went back to the farm for all that time, did you ever stop loving Dad?"

"No." Abbey's reply was immediate, then she relaxed. "Okay, I hated what he had done – and what happened to Zoey as a result – and I was hurt, very hurt and very confused too, that he hadn't told me about it before, that he hadn't shared with me the agony he must have gone through before ordering that assassination – and that I had to hear about it from the TV and not from him – but–" she held up her hands in the acceptance that she had finally reached, "–he was the President, Liz, he had to make decisions like that, he had to separate the man from the office. And – well, it was the man that I loved, not the President. And in the end that was the most important thing – because I knew that I couldn't ever stop loving him."

Liz looked at her. "Would you still love him if he had had an affair?"

"He–" Abbey stopped abruptly. She had been about to say that Jed would never do that, but she knew it was not what Liz wanted to hear. Instead she shook her head. "Political expediency is one thing, Liz – but emotional betrayal – infidelity – is a whole different ball game. I – well, I guess I would have lost all respect for him."

"Yeah," Liz nodded. "That sums it up – I guess I've just lost all my respect for Doug." She stood up and gave a small smile. "I think I need to go have some fun with Ellie and Zoey now."

Abbey smiled back at her. "I think you do too, darling."

As Liz disappeared through the bedroom door, Abbey thoughtfully sipped the rest of her champagne. She heaved a sigh. Why, she thought, didn't anyone ever tell you just how hard it was at times being a mother? She sat for a few minutes, then put down her glass and went through to the bathroom.

"Okay, you guys, now tell me what you're all laughing about!"

It was just after seven o'clock when Jed came back to the suite. Abbey was on the couch with her feet up looking through one of the glossy tourist magazines about Brussels.

"I was kinda hoping I might find you in the hot tub," he said with a grin.

"Patience is a virtue, Jed."

"Then it's not one of my virtues. Come on–" He held out his hand to her but she shook her head.

"The girls are coming back up here for dinner in about ten minutes – and I've already shocked them once today, so I'm not intending to do it again by being caught in flagrante delicto!"

Jed sighed. "Okay, I guess we'll have to wait a while longer then." He took off his jacket and loosened his tie and the top button of his shirt, then sat down next to her. "How did you shock them?"

"By letting slip that you ordered stuff from 'Victoria's Secret'," Abbey said with a grin.

Jed laughed. "I thought that was one of the West Wing's worst kept secrets. Even Mrs Landingham knew I had the catalogue in one of the drawers of the desk in the Oval."

Abbey's eyes widened. "Oh, I didn't realise that! I bet her face was a picture when she discovered it!"

"Yeah, it was. The drawer was open when she came across to give me a file, and she glanced down and then said, 'I really do not think that is a very – suitable item to have in the Oval Office, Mr President." Jed did a perfect imitation of Mrs Landingham's voice, and then laughed. "I felt like I was sixteen again!"

Abbey laughed too. "Yeah, I can believe that."

Jed leant back against the couch. "There was another time when I'd left that damned catalogue on the top of the desk when I was having a meeting with the Christian Right – and I suddenly realised it was there, and was trying to signal to Leo to do something – and he finally got the message and slid some papers over it. But he was grinning so much that Al Caldwell said, 'You find this pro-life conversation amusing, Mr McGarry?' – and I had the devil's own job of trying to keep a straight face!"

They were both still laughing when the girls came into the sitting room.

"What's funny?" Zoey asked.

Jed looked round. "Your Mom asked me earlier today about the best times of the last eight years, so I was telling her one of them."

"You gonna tell us then?" said Liz.

Jed exchanged a quick glance at Abbey and then grinned. "Well, maybe not that one!"

Abbey stood up and crossed to the phone and dialled the room service number. "Could you send the stewards now please?" she said, and then added, "And we'd like a couple more bottles of champagne too."

They waited while two stewards, using the service door to the dining area, set the large table and then when everything was prepared and the heated trolleys had been brought in, Jed stood up. "Thanks very much, guys – we'll sort it out for ourselves now."

As they moved across to the table, Abbey said suddenly, "Oh, just a minute–"

She disappeared into the bedroom and came back a few moments later with a CD which she put into the hi-fi unit. "I think you might be interested in this, Zoey."

They sat down at the table – Jed and Abbey on one side and the three girls on the other – as the CD started with 'Wild Mountain Thyme'."

Zoey frowned as she listened. "Why me?"

"Recognise the voice?" Jed said, at the same time reaching for Abbey's hand under the table. She looked round at him and the colour started to rise to her cheeks, as she remembered the previous evening when they'd been dancing together to the same song.

Zoey shook her head, still mystified. "Should I?"

"Kate?" Abbey queried. "Kate O'Leary?"

Zoey's eyes widened. "Kate? You mean that's Kate?"

"Aye, for sure, it is indeed," Jed said, imitating Kate's Irish accent with a smile.

"So how – why–?"

As they ate, Jed and Abbey together told the story of how Kate had recognised them at Connolly's and then teased them at Lonergan's in Ballykane.

Zoey laughed. "Oh, I can just imagine Kate doing that. She was such fun, we got along so well. But I can hardly believe that you actually met her! We emailed each other for a while after she went back to Ireland, but then we sort of lost contact – she took a year out to do some voluntary work with street kids in – um, Romania, I think it was. I really must email her again now!"

The conversation drifted round to other reminiscences about Ireland, and Abbey proudly showed off her Claddagh ring and explained its meaning.

"Just make sure you don't wear it the wrong way round then, Mom," said Liz with a laugh. "Else Dad might get worried!"

"Never," said Jed and lifted Abbey's hand to kiss the ring gently.

Liz glanced round at her sisters. "Maybe this is our hint to get the hell out of here!" she said with a laugh.

Abbey glanced at her watch. "What time are you and Zoey going out on the town?"

"You're going out?" Jed asked.

"Yeah, with Sam and some of the other staff," Abbey told him.

"And the agents, I hope."

"Yes, Dad, with the agents," Zoey said.

"You not going, Ellie?" Jed said.

Ellie shook her head. "I need an early night."

Jed smiled gently at her. "Yeah, you gotta look after that little one. You'll be okay this time, Ellie, I just know it."

"Yeah," said Ellie with a small smile, "yeah, I know it too."

They'd finished their meal and Jed looked at Liz. "So what time are you going out then?"

"Sam said he'd call us here when they're ready. Not yet though – we've probably got another half hour."

"Okay." Jed took a deep breath and reached for Abbey's hand as he looked across at his three daughters. "Well, before you go, there's something that I want – that I need to tell you all…"

TBC