“The courtship, if that’s what you want to call it, lasted for about eleven months. The day I agreed to become the face of La Natural, which by then I knew he had owned for three years, he asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes because I was in love. My parents approved.

“My first mistake was assuming we would live in France. I was wrong. As soon as we returned from our honeymoon on some exotic island, Lincoln made plans for us to return to America. I was devastated. I had already agreed to become the face of La Natural. This massive ad campaign was all worked out. All the photo shoots were done in Washington, D.C. The props they used were French. No one, he said, would ever know the difference, and as far as I know, that never came up. For all intents and purposes everything was done in France, Paris to be precise, while it all took place in a rented studio on K Street, all except for the outdoor shots.

“By then he had had all the products repackaged and tripled and quadrupled the price of everything. La Natural was suddenly the most expensive cosmetic in the universe. And there I was touting all those crappy products and saying I used them and that’s why I was so beautiful. It was all a lie, of course. The products were no better than those purchased by teenagers in a drugstore. The ad campaign was a horror. He worked me like a dog under those hot lights for eighteen hours a day. One day I collapsed because he monitored my food intake and would weigh me each morning. If I gained an ounce, he slapped me. If I gained five ounces, he punched me. Where it didn’t show.”

Amalie pointed to Rosalee. “Rosy was my maid. It was up to her to bring me ice packs, tape up my ribs, and, of course, to count my calories. She hated doing it, but she was as afraid of Lincoln as I was. He made so much money, he didn’t know what to do with it. I know for a fact that after Gabriel Knight became President, Lincoln would take bushel baskets of La Natural to the White House and hand them out to the female staff. He would tell them his beautiful wife sent them. Mr. Charm himself. Beautiful packaging will do it every time. Place an astronomical price tag on the product, and you can’t go wrong. At least that’s what Lincoln said. He was right, and the company took off like a rocket.”

“Why didn’t you leave?” Maggie asked.