She was at a desk in what had once been a dressing room. When the Hanovers had moved into the White House, she had turned a portion of the residence into a personal office, one more private than the space reserved for her in the Old Executive Office Building. The move—which coincided with Hanover’s announcement that Margaret would attend Cabinet meetings—had prompted criticism, with her predecessor as First Lady pronouncing it “unseemly.”

The widow Hanover was alone. She had dispatched her aides to the West Wing with various instructions on whom to invite to the funeral, a seating chart for the cathedral, a list of foundations to be designated as the recipients of donations in lieu of flowers. Her face was pearl white. It looked as if it would be cold to the touch. Addis felt uneasy. Was he here to grieve with her or to plan?

“Not interested right now,” Addis said in reply to her questions.

“He didn’t even ask me to come,” she said. “But Kelly came by a few minutes ago to explain. Merely an oversight. That Sam—I mean, the President—assumed that I was busy and not available. And that, of course, I was invited.”

“Not interested, either?”

“Not ready to see him in that chair. Or to be stared at. To have my mourning judged … .”

She pulled a tissue from the box on her desk.

“You know what Mumfries is going to do?” she asked.

Addis shook his head. Was the question rhetorical? Years ago he had trained himself to follow the advice of his father, a professor of music history and the author of the definitive biography of Woody Guthrie: When you do not know what to say, listen. Later on, at law school, a negotiations expert had told his class that one should always let the person across the table speak first. Addis had developed his habits. Waiting was one of them. Margaret looked at the papers and folders on her desk.

“You know,” she complained. “I asked for storage boxes over an hour ago.”

Addis wondered if anyone had put their arms around Margaret since the … the event. Her focus returned.

“I don’t think Sam knows what he’s going to do. But I’m sure Kelly does. And I doubt we loom large in the picture.”

“They certainly don’t need to move quickly,” Addis said.

“I am thinking of the grander scheme.”

Whose grander scheme?