“Old haunt,” said Saeger. “And we’re not likely to run into—what was his name? The snapper?”

“Van Nuys?”

“Or anybody else like him. Not that I’m ashamed to be seen with you. It’s just—”

“I can’t be seen with you. Conflict of interest. The same reason we couldn’t put you onstage yesterday.”

Saeger nodded, sipped her beer. She looked so at home here, and so in her own skin: much more than she had at the gala. “That was a hard time, listening to it all and keeping my teeth shut. Delia would’ve been firing smart remarks like a chain gun, with all those swells telling made-up stories about her.”

“You don’t think she’d be pleased to be remembered?”

“Pleased? Absolutely. Polite? Not a chance. She wasn’t exactly tactful. Or tactical. Me, you didn’t hear a peep, and I smiled through it. I know about grand gestures. Spent enough years lighting ’em. Back when this place was Curtains.”

“Stagefolk bar?”

“Only the name’s changed really. Though there’s fewer strippers and all that now.” Setting her glass between them, she put her palms on the table and leaned in. “But I didn’t want to talk to you about old times. The party’s called Forward Gedda, after all.”

Lillian tipped her head: a nod, barely.

“You’ve noticed the press doesn’t treat me kindly. How do I change that?”

“I’m afraid as far as the Telegraph goes, you’re scratched. But you might get a better class of censure if you actually matched Frye policy for policy. If she talks about her tax plan in a debate, you’d better have a rejoinder.” The first one, a month ago, had been a joke. “Rallies are one thing, but when they put you opposite Frye you need to be able to counter her points.”

“My policy is to help Gedda,” said Saeger. “Delia used to say she just wanted to get the Ospies out, get things back to normal. But I’d always tell her if the house fell down the first time, why build it back the same?”

“And what did she say to that?”

“She said that’s why I was the brains of the operation. She told me when we scratched Acherby, I ought to be in charge. She meant it for a joke, I think, but after she … I just kept hearing her say it. The way she used to tell me to round up our folk, there was a train tonight that wouldn’t make the station.”

“A mission,” said Lillian, despairing.

“Maybe. But it ain’t just for her. I don’t want my country run on bribery and favors, welfare gutted to line somebody’s pockets. I want a better, cleaner Gedda, but I don’t want to sound like Acherby when I say it. I just want something that works for us all.”