“I’ll do that. Oh, by the way, Kate told me to tell you that they accept your invitation to dinner tonight with pleasure.”

“The Secret Service already told me.”

“Who else will be here?”

“My and Dino’s sons and their girlfriends, and a couple who work for Peter in his production company at Centurion Studios, named Billy and Betsy Burnett.”

“Oh, I’m supposed to tell you that Senator Sam Meriwether and his wife, Dorothy, will be coming, too.”

“I’ve met him,” Stone said, “but not her.” Sam Meriwether, a former congressman from Georgia, had been elected to Will Lee’s old seat and was Kate’s campaign manager. His sobriquet in the Senate was “the new Sam Nunn.” “They’re welcome.”

“Technically, he’s my boss, but he’s been working out of D.C., so I haven’t seen a lot of him, just a lot of phone calls.”

“Is he the right guy to run Kate’s campaign?”

“He is. Kate wanted a southerner, preferably a Georgian, and he’s the sort of senator who gets along with people on both sides of the aisle. Kate and I pretty much run the day-to-day operations, and Sam is more of a strategist. He also is good on television and gets along very well with the press.”

“The accent helps, I think,” Stone said.

“It certainly does. It’s an old-fashioned Georgia accent, and it sounds good on him.”

“Does Kate know about the death threat?”

“Sure, and she’s unfazed. She’s used to that sort of thing, and she knows she’s well protected.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I wouldn’t want her to worry unnecessarily. What time do you have to be back with Kate?”

“Not until eight-thirty or so,” she said.

“Then you have time to come back to bed for a little while, don’t you?”

She smiled. “I’ll be right there.”

—

THEY HAD BREAKFAST sent up on trays and ate in bed, watching the morning shows and reading the papers. A BREAKING NEWS title came on the screen.

“We’ve just had news that Senator Eleanor Stockman has taken a turn for the worse,” an anchorwoman said.

Ann put down the papers and listened. “Uh-oh,” she said.

“Senator Stockman went into the hospital after collapsing at her home last week, and was diagnosed with an operable brain tumor. She had the surgery and was said to be recovering well, but in the early hours of this morning she arrested and had to be revived and intubated. She has been on a respirator for several hours now, and a spokesman says that she is in critical condition.”

“That’s so sad,” Ann said. “I saw her in New York a couple of weeks ago, and she looked tired, but healthy. She was scheduled to speak at the convention.”

“It sounds very serious,” Stone said. “Who will they get to replace her?”