Alien Diplomacy

pointedly moved himself between Marcia and me.
    I wanted desperately to say we’d found the child held in my arms, who everyone in the world said looked exactly like me, in abasket on the Embassy steps, but I managed to rein myself in. Aunt Emily would have been proud. “Yes.” Tried to walk on again.
    “She’s so cute,” Marcia said.
    “Thank you.”
    “Can I hold her?”
    I stared at her. “No.” Duchess growled softly. I had no idea if she was reacting to my feelings or not, but my dogs, like Jeff, were pretty in tune with my emotions, Duchess in particular.
    She looked shocked. “Why not?”
    “I don’t pass my three-month-old daughter around to anyone and everyone.”
    “Oh, new mother thing. I get it.” She looked at White and gave him what I could only think of as a coy smile. “Is this your husband? He’s even more handsome than I’ve heard.”
    White resembled Timothy Dalton, and he was an A-C, so he was a good example of how to look amazingly hot when you were over fifty. However, my husband he was not. Having met him, I knew Marcia’s husband was around White’s age, though, so I could see how she’d be confused.
    White smiled. “No, I’m her husband’s uncle. Richard White. And you are?”
    “Marcia Kramer. My husband is Senator Zachary Kramer, from Illinois.” She put out her hand.
    White took it and did the whole gallant thing, which included hand kissing. Unsurprisingly, he did it better than Gadoire had the other day, but it was still nauseating, though it might just have been making me ill because I couldn’t stand Marcia. I managed not to gag, but it took real effort. The dogs didn’t try to butt in, which was something of a shock, but I took the small victories whenever they showed up.
    “And you, Mademoiselle?” White said to Nathalie.
    She managed to drag herself away from her phone. “I’m a Madame.”
    Since White seemed intent on being polite, I broke down. “Nathalie Gagnon-Brewer, Richard White.”
    “Pleased to make your acquaintance,” she said, offering her hand. White did the whole gallant thing again while I contemplated flowers, not to hide from Jeff but to keep from barfing. Maybe I’d have thought this was old world charming if I didn’t have the far too recent memory of Gadoire slobbering on my hand to turn my stomach.
    They finished, and Nathalie seemed to notice Len and Kyle forthe first time. They both got appraising looks. “And who are your young men?” She shot me a sly smile. “You take the French ideas for both sides of the marriage, oui?”
    It took me a bit to realize she was insinuating that Len and Kyle were my boy toys. It had apparently taken the boys less time. They were both busily petting the dogs, who were quite willing to act as distractions; Kyle’s face was already red.
    “Um, not so much, no. Great seeing you both. Dogs need to go do what dogs do on a walk. Would hate for them to do it here in front of your friend’s Embassy.”
    “Oh, they won’t care,” Marcia said, with a casual wave of her hand toward the Croatians. I knew we’d mind, so I was pretty sure they would, too. I wanted to ask her just who she thought would say it was okay for someone else’s dog to poop on their friends’ property anyway. Particularly four large dogs. Particularly Dudley. No one wants a Great Dane to relieve itself anywhere in their general vicinity. The boys could already attest to that.
    “I’d care.” Tried to walk on again.
    “Did you hear about Jack?” Marcia asked.
    “He called last night, yeah. We’re all still going to the President’s Ball anyway, despite Jack’s warning.”
    “Oh, I didn’t mean about that.” Marcia put her hand on my arm. Duchess did the low growl thing again, but Marcia either didn’t hear it or wasn’t worried about being ripped to shreds by my dogs. I wondered if she actually thought I liked her while Len got Duchess back under control. “Poor Jack, he killed himself this morning.”
    I stopped trying to walk on. “Excuse me?” My body felt cold.
    She nodded. “Hung himself. It’s so sad. Abner thinks it’s because Pia found out he’d been snooping on her. They had a huge fight, and she went to a friend’s house for the night. Poor Abner.”
    “Poor Abner? Jack’s the one who’s dead!”
    Marcia shook her head. “Abner found Jack. He was worried about him after Bryce confirmed that Jack had called everyone from class to warn them to stay away from the ball. Abner’s a