Brenda gave a loud sigh as she continued to sift through the large stack of mail in front of her. "Is it really that bad?" Angie asked quietly.

She looked up at Angie’s smiling face. "Yes, it is." Brenda waved her into the portion of the master bedroom suite that contained her desk and computer terminal. "*Please* tell me that’s not another stack of mail you’ve got."

"OK. This is *not* another stack of mail." Angie plopped a large stack of cards and letters down on Brenda’s desk with a sly grin. "Well, you asked me not to tell you that."

"Why do you remind me of a bad rerun of David Letterman?" Brenda reached out and pulled the stack to her, automatically beginning to sort the colored envelopes from the white ones. She glanced up at Angie, who had begun to quietly exit the room. "Hey, there, soldier! Where do you think you’re going?"

"Ummm……downstairs to see how James is doing?" Angie said with a sly smile.

"Stop being hormonal and drag your skinny butt over here and help me with these." Brenda pushed a stack of letters towards Angie. "It’s actually pretty easy. The colored ones are usually Christmas cards from people who are disgustingly organized and early. The plain envelopes are usually politically related." Brenda opened her desk drawer, pulled out an extra letter opener, and pushed it towards Angie’s side of the desk.

"You mean that you don’t have your Christmas cards addressed yet?" Angie asked.

Brenda made a face. "I haven’t even been able to get enough of Jax’s time to get our Christmas picture taken together." She sighed. "Sometimes I think that maybe this year, I’ll just have the picture taken with me and the two children and I’ll get one of those blow-up crash dummies to stand in for Jax."

Angie stifled a smile as she continued to sort mail. "So, tell me again why we’re doing the queen of the Silicon Valley’s work for her?"

"Because Miss Kimberly is too busy having dinners with my husband, and drinks with my husband, and taking pictures with my husband….." Brenda sighed and looked into Angie’s sympathetic eyes. "Gee, do I sound bitter?"

Angie kept her head down. "You won’t catch me blaming you if you were." She looked up and put her hand on Brenda’s, stopping her from sorting for a minute. "I take it your Thanksgiving wasn’t exactly a Norman Rockwell moment?"

"Oh, the dinner itself was alright," Brenda snorted. "We were actually graced with Jax’s presence at the table for more than 10 minutes." After putting down her letter opener in disgust, Brenda began to massage her temples. "I’m sorry, Angie. I don’t mean to take this all out on you."

"Hey, no problem. Go ahead and vent. I know it helps sometimes."

Brenda sat back in her chair. "The sad part is, I’m not sure it will help. After Jax came back from Kingston, he swore he would put aside some time to spend with us before the madness of the holidays set in. Well, that lasted all of 3 hours. Kimberly called him with some "emergency" dinner he had to attend with the knights of something-or-other, and then the next day when we were all going to go to the zoo, Kimberly shows up with a "revised" calendar for his speaking dates which meant that the had to start working on the speeches right away." She sighed. "All the other politicians I’ve ever heard just give the same speech over and over again. Why can’t Jax?"

"Because he’s your husband and he’s the most wonderful man in the world and you wouldn’t expect any less from him," Angie answered wisely. She tilted her head to the side. "Do I sense a twinge of jealousy in there, too?"

Brenda grimaced and picked up her letter opener again. "I know, I’m being silly. Everyone keeps telling me that. And I guess down deep I know that Jax would never really cheat on me." She slit an envelope open with a vengeance. "But it’s just that Kimberly is so…..so….."

"Trashy? Slutty? Typically blonde and bimbo-esque?"

Brenda nodded. "How about, all of the above? And the really hard part is that Jax just doesn’t seem to see it! In fact, none of the men seem to! Except for Jerry and James, that is." She noticed Angie’s face blush slightly at the mention of the agent’s name and she leaned forward. "So, how are things going between you and Mr. Secret Agent?"

"About as well as can be expected for someone who has to spend his life in the shadows," Angie replied with a sigh. "Thanks to you, we did get to spend some time on Thanksgiving afternoon together. I really appreciated you inviting me, even though I missed dinner."

Brenda waved the letter opener. "No problem. You should know that you’re family by now. You would have been invited even if we didn’t have this dark, handsome, charismatic bodyguard staying with us." She smiled. "I take it the two of you didn’t spend the afternoon watching football?" She slit open another envelope.

Angie smiled coyly. "Let’s just say that there was a lot of illegal use of hands, and it wasn’t all on the football field!"

Brenda laughed heartily for the first time that morning, but then her face turned curious when she began to go through the contents of the envelope. It seemed to be just a single piece of paper, and there was a photograph enclosed. As she unfolded the parchment-colored paper, and took a look at the photograph, she gasped and Angie dropped her letter opener. "What’s wrong? Is it the stalker again? Do you want me to go get James?"

Brenda’s face went from sheet-white to flushed pink in 5 seconds. "No," she said through grit teeth. "James isn’t the man who can answer my questions about this." She rose from the small desk and headed for the door with a sharp cadence to her step. She turned back to Angie at the door. "I shouldn’t be long. If I’m not back within ten minutes, call James. Jax may need CPR after I’m through with him!"

Angie rose her eyebrows in shock as Brenda exited the room. She had never seen her this angry. Brenda’s anger didn’t dissipate as she went down the hallway towards Jax’s study. She knocked once briefly on the door, but then opened it and went in even before Jax had a chance to answer her.

The scene that greeted her didn’t lift her spirits any. Jax was seated at his desk and Kimberly was standing next to him, leaning over him to read something he was writing. Her blouse was gaping in the front as she leaned, but Brenda at least was comforted that with Jax seated as he was to the side, he didn’t get a view of Mounts Silicone. He looked up as soon as Brenda came into the room. "I’m sorry, sweetie, but we’re kind of in the middle of something."

Steam almost poured out of Brenda’s ears. "Yeah, well I’m almost at the END of something! I need to speak to you privately for a few minutes!"

"Jasper, we really don’t have time…" Kimberly began, but Jax put up his right hand to stop her words.

"Yes we do, Kimberly. Brenda needs to speak to me and it’s obviously important." He glanced up at Kimberly, who was beginning to spout steam herself. "Why don’t you……"

"…..why don’t you go down the hallway to my bedroom and help Angie with some of the mail? You know – like a campaign manager is supposed to do?" Brenda suggested acidly.

Kimberly sensed being outnumbered and moved away from Jax’s desk gracefully. "Of course, Brenda. That’s a marvelous idea." She walked past Brenda on the way to the door, her hips swaying so far from side to side that it was making Brenda seasick.

As she left the room, Brenda called after her, "You can’t miss it, Kimberly. It’s the third door on the left." As she closed the doors behind the blonde, Brenda muttered under her breath, "I’m sure you won’t have any trouble finding it. Being in that room your goal in life, after all!"

She turned back to Jax, who was already absorbed in some paperwork on his desk again. As Brenda approached him, her "simmer" state was beginning to approach a full-fledged "boil" as he didn’t even notice her. She stood at the desk for a full minute before "boil" hit the "red zone" and she slapped the envelope from the Kingston Holiday Inn on the desk.

Jax finally looked up at her. "Oh, yeah, Brenda. That’s right, I’m sorry." He closed his eyes and massaged his temples. "You wanted to talk to me about something?"

She folded her arms. "I thought you might be slightly interested in what came in the mail for me today."

Jax looked down at the envelope in confusion, but then his face grew pale. "Is it something from the stalker?"

"You know, sad to say, I almost wish it was," Brenda said acidly. As Jax gave her a confused look and frowned, Brenda sat in the chair opposite him. "Open it."

He looked at the return address. "Brenda, if this is some kind of bill for the hotel stay, you should just turn it over to Angie…"

"OPEN THE D*MN ENVELOPE, JAX!" Jax could count the number of times Brenda had shouted at him or sworn on one hand, and she had always been in labor at the time. He opened the envelope and as he took out the single piece of stationery, the photo fell onto the desk, face down.

"It’s blank," Jax finally said after examining the piece of letterhead.

"It’s the picture that they wanted me to have," Brenda replied in a low voice. "Look at it."

Jax picked up the picture and glanced at it briefly, leaning back in his chair. "Oh, this is NOTHING!" he said, holding the picture in one hand (but not looking at it) and running his hand through his hair with the other.

"Nothing? You call that nothing?"

Jax shook his head. "Kimberly was just trying to make a joke about old times and she wrote a message in lipstick on the mirror right before we left the room." He put the photo back down on the desk. "She must have done it while I was shaving."

"And you saw it?" Brenda folded her arms in surprise.

"Yes, of course – she pointed it out to me," Jax said with a half-smile. "She asked me if it brought back any memories. I just thought it was funny and then I went downstairs to check out."

"You read THAT message and you thought it was FUNNY?" Brenda was almost shouting again.

Jax picked up the picture. "Yeah, why shouldn’t….." He glanced at it again, and his eyes widened and he sat up straight. "Wait a minute…..this says….." He began to stammer. "Brenda, this isn’t…..that’s not….." He looked at her with new understanding. "The message that Kimberly wrote on the mirror didn’t say this."

"What did it say, Jax?" Brenda was gripping the chair so hard her nails were making dents in the expensive fabric.

Jax threw the picture down as though it was a poisonous snake. "It said something about thanking me for being a perfect gentleman." He looked into Brenda’s furious face. "Brenda….surely you don’t think…." He leaned back and closed his eyes again. "We’re not going to get into the whole jealousy thing again, are we?"

"Oh, no, heavens no," Brenda replied. "Why should I be jealous, or hurt, or angry? Just because my husband spends more time with a buxom blonde than he does with me and now …." She stopped as he glared at her. "…..now someone is making it appear that he’s having an affair with her, why should I be upset?"

Jax took a long breath. "Brenda, you knew when we got into this campaign that it would occupy a lot of my time."

"Not this much." He almost didn’t hear her.

"Brenda, I know that Kimberly has been taking me out of the house a lot of nights lately. And now this," he gestured to the photo, "doctored photo seems to make it look like something’s going on between us, but surely you know that I would never be unfaithful to you." Jax spoke in an equally quiet voice.

"All I know is that Kimberly has wanted you ever since college, and she usually gets what she wants." Brenda’s eyes were gathering with tears. "What about Lea?"

Jax frowned. "Lea? How did she get into this conversation? What about her?"

Brenda quickly wiped her tears with her hand. "Someone told me that you had an affair with Lea when you were in college. This person said that this whole campaign thing is just her ploy to get you closer to her so you two can pick up where you left off."

"That’s ridiculous! Who told you that?" Jax’s face told the story of a bad day gone even worse.

"It doesn’t matter. Did you have an affair with Lea in college?"

Jax’s eyes grew stony. "Brenda, you knew when we first started…..dating…..that you weren’t my first." He stared her down. "And you told me I wasn’t your first, either. But that was the past. After we were together, none of that mattered anymore. You may not have been my first, but you were my last. You’re my wife."

"But you still didn’t answer the question." He gave a long sigh of exasperation. "Did you have an affair with her?"

"Where is all of this coming from? Is it that time of the month again?"

Brenda gasped. "Jasper Jacks, you have been a lot of things in the 6 years that I’ve known you, but NEVER a chauvinistic pig! How DARE you ask me that?!!

He finally rose from behind the desk and went to look out the window. "Because I have no idea where all of this is coming from today. It’s so unlike you, Brenda. You have NEVER been doubtful about my being faithful to you in the past. I just don’t understand what’s bringing it all on today!"

Jax frowned and turned back to the window, swearing under his breath. Just as quickly, he came back to sit in the chair next to Brenda’s. "Now look, Brenda, I’m going to try to explain this. I don’t know if it will make any sense to you," he hesitated," and I’m not sure that you’re in the mood right now to make much sense of anything I say." She opened her mouth indignantly, but he help up a hand and took a deep breath.

"When Lea first came to me about this whole election thing, I thought it would be interesting, and maybe fun. It would be exciting, you know? There’s never been a Jacks in public office before. It would certainly make my mother proud." He tried to take her hand, but she just insisted on gripping the arms of the chair for dear life. "But once I got into speaking to the crowds and listening to their concerns, it became more important to me." He leaned towards Brenda. "I REALLY want this seat, Brenda. I think I can really do something important here. I can make a difference in some people’s lives. I want to win."

He sat back and sighed. "Now Kimberly, despite what you think of her as a person, is an expert at one thing – getting people elected. If I had to choose someone to spend 20 waking hours a day with, it would *never* be her. But she’s good at projecting the best image to get someone elected, and that’s what I want. So although it’s selfish, yes – I’m spending as much time with her as I can. Because it will get me elected." His eyes spoke volumes, but Brenda’s mind and emotions were spinning. "So I’m sorry if you’re not happy that she’s become so important in my life, but it’s only because of the campaign, and then she’s history. And that’s the truth."

Just as he reached to take her hand again, the door to the study opened and Kimberly poked her head inside. "Excuse me, Jasper, but you’ll never guess what happened! We got a call from the ABC affiliate in New York City, and they want to interview you on their Sunday morning news magazine show? Isn’t that exciting?" She was nearly bursting with happiness, but Jax’s gaze was only riveted on Brenda.

"Yeah, great news," he said quietly. Brenda sniffed back tears, but her hand was still limp in Jax’s.

"Well then," Kimberly said, coming further into the room, "we’d better get going since we’ll need to formulate some policy statements that you’re comfortable with in an interview setting. And I guess I’ll take some time and make a quick trip to New York to check out the studio lighting."

Jax shook his head to clear it and looked back at Kimberly. "I had planned to meet with some bankers in Manhattan tomorrow anyway. If you like, I’ll fly you there in the chopper and we can discuss the interview on the way." He looked back at Brenda. "Is everything settled now?"

Brenda rose from the chair and took the photo off the desk, putting it slowly back into the envelope. She turned to leave the room, making sure her eyes were dry so that Kimberly couldn’t see she had been crying. "As settled as they can ever be," she said, brushing past Kimberly on the way out the door. As it closed behind her, she heard Kimberly gushing about what a wonderful opportunity this would be for Jax.

"Yeah, but what about for us?" Brenda said softly, not noticing James and Jo approaching her from down the hall.

"Something wrong?" His deep voice caught her by surprise, and she looked up just in time to put a smile on her face. James was holding Jo’s hand, and Jo had her blue wool coat with the black velvet collar in her hands.

"No – nothing at all!" Brenda said, trying to sound cheerful. "Are you going somewhere, missy?" she said, noticing the coat and frowning.

"Mommy, you and daddy promised to take me to the store to go Christmas shopping today! And daddy said we could even go see Santa while we were there! Remember?"

Brenda crouched down to take Jo in her arms. "Oh, sweetie, I’m SO sorry. Everyone’s been so busy around here with daddy’s election that it completely slipped my mind." She glanced back over her shoulder at the closed doors of the study.

"Does that mean we’re not going?" Jo’s lower lip began to make its appearance.

"Well, daddy won’t be able to go with us, but I’m still game if you are," Brenda replied, trying to cheer up her winsome daughter.

"Hey, kiddo," James said, crouching down next to the two long faces, "how about if I go along, too? That way Mr. Paul can stay here with your daddy and I can keep an eye on all of you and make sure you buy something extra special for me for Christmas!"

Jo’s eyes began to sparkle again. "Well, maybe….." Just then a voice echoed down the hall.

"Did I hear someone mention the word "shopping?"" Grandma Josie came down the hallway with a bounce to her step. "Because you know that I can outlast all of you put together when it comes to shopping!"

"Want to come Christmas shopping with us, Greaty-Grandma?" Jo asked eagerly. "Daddy’s busy with Miss Kimberly and he can’t come, so it will be just you and mommy and me and Mr. James."

Josie gave James a wink and a sly smile. "I don’t know, sweet cheeks. Think you’re hot enough to handle us three women all at once?"

James rubbed his chin as he stood upright again. "Well, I thought I was up to the job before, but now…..well, you might be a little too much for me, Mrs. Jacks."

"Hell’s bells, James! You should be in the diplomatic corps, not the WSB! And don’t you remember you’re supposed to call me Josie? I thought we got that straight on Thanksgiving when you and I were tussling over that wishbone!"

James raised his eyebrows. "Oh, yeah…..the wishbone." He smiled slyly. "You mean when we broke the wishbone and you LET me win, but then you had a private talk with Angie so I didn’t get my wish!"

Josie pretended innocence. "Me? Now, all I did was tell Angie this old story my mother told me about cows and milk and economic futures." She smiled at Jo. "Why don’t you two go on ahead and I’ll help your mom get her coat?" She watched them as they disappeared down the hall, and then she linked her arm through Brenda’s. "Now, honeybuns. Why don’t you tell Grandma what’s goin’ on that’s got your undies in a twist."

Brenda gave a long sigh. "It’s just the usual, Grandma. Jax can’t go Christmas shopping with us cause Kimberly’s got him busy working on speeches and personal appearances." She hesitated, but then pulled the photo out of her pocket. "And I got this in the mail today."

Josie took the picture and held it at arm’s length first, then pulling it in closer to take a good look. "Well I’ll be Hoovered…….." She looked toward the closed doors to the study. "She certainly is a female dog if ever there was one."

Brenda took Josie into her bedroom quickly and shut the door behind them. "Grandma, you don’t think that she and Jax actually……"

"…..did the horizontal rhumba? Hell’s bells, NO, child!" Josie shook her head at Brenda. "That man loves you to distraction, Brenda. Don’t you believe that?" She sat down on the bed as Brenda sat at her dressing table fixing her makeup. "Did you show it to Jasper?"

"Yes." Brenda’s face was grim.

"And what did he have to say about it?"

"He denied it, of course. He says that Kimberly DID write on the mirror, but it was a different message. He says she only did it for "old times’ sake" and as a gesture of friendship." She shook her head. "I think Kimberly probably can count all her friends in this world on one hand."

Josie looked at the picture again closely. "You say you got this in the mail today?"

Brenda nodded. "Uh-huh. Just the picture in some letterhead from the Holiday Inn in Kingston."

Josie looked at the picture carefully, then at Brenda as she put on a different sweater and some wool pants. "Well, it’s as plain as the nose on your face, honeybuns. This is a fake."

"What do you mean?" Her face poked its way out of the sweater and wore a hopeful look.

Josie crooked her finger towards Brenda and pointed at the picture. "Don’t you see the lipstick is smeared on the mirror? Maybe Jasper is right and there WAS a different message there to begin with." She looked at the picture again and pointed at it. "And see the phone book on the dresser? It’s obvious the person taking the picture wanted you to see that it came from the Holiday Inn. Like they were tryin’ to prove it was from Jasper’s hotel suite."

"That’s amazing, Grandma!" Brenda said. "How did you know to look for all of those things?"

"I didn’t watch Angela Lansbury on all those Sunday nights for nothin’, honeybuns!" she exclaimed. "Somebody’s setting Jasper up and wants you to think the worst. Now it’s just a question of who."

"Carly maybe?" Brenda sat down again and freshened her lipstick, catching Josie’s glance in the mirror.

"Possibly. Or……" Josie got up from the bed as Brenda grabbed her coat. "…..it could be Kimberly, trying to make you jealous enough to cause a fight, and send Jasper right into her arms for comfort."

Brenda froze with her hand on the doorknob. "Well," she said ruefully, "if it was Kimberly, I played right into her hands. Jax and I had a doozy of a fight right before you got here." She led Josie out into the hall. "I’ll be right down. I’d better go apologize to Jax before we leave. I acted like a jealous shrew."

Josie stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Now, honeybuns, don’t act too hastily. Let the boy stew in his juices for a while. Maybe you overreacted to the picture, but he also has to wake up and realize that he’s been treating you like dog poopy." They walked past the closed doors to the study and heard Kimberly’s laugh. "Nope," Josie said as they stood at the head of the stairway, "what that boy just needs is someone to show him the error of his ways." She smiled. "And I’m just the gal to do it."

Carly descended the staircase of the penthouse to greet a man sitting on the couch. "Mr. Siebert, I’ve been anxious to meet with you. From our brief conversation on the telephone, it sounds like you’ve got some excellent materials."

The man on the couch rose briefly as Carly came to meet him and shook her hand briskly. "It’s a pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Morgan." They both sat on the couch and he began to pull some papers out of his briefcase and some photos. "From those leads that you gave us, our people have come up with some interesting items."

He handed her the first photo. "One of our people took this in the hotel suite in Kingston shortly after Mr. Jacks and Ms. Forsythe left the room. As you can see, it appears that Mr. Jacks is becoming quite…..close to his campaign manager." He handed her another picture. "And this one was taken day before yesterday at Windom’s Department Store. Apparently Mrs. Jacks and her daughter went shopping with the grandmother and the bodyguard."

"So?" Carly looked confused and disappointed.

Mr. Siebert grinned maliciously. "It’s all in the spin we apply to the picture, Mrs. Morgan. Notice this shot here – it was taken in the men’s fragrance department. Obviously Mrs. Jacks and her daughter were selecting some aftershave for Mr. Jacks, and asking the bodyguard for his opinion. But with the right wording, don’t you think it’s interesting that Mrs. Jacks and the bodyguard seem to be having SO much fun sampling the fragrances?"

"You mean that we imply that while Jax is off fooling around with the campaign manager, his wife is finding solace with the bodyguard?" Carly’s face was brightening. What had seemed so impossibly hard in the beginning now seemed much easier.

"Well, we can’t SAY that, but we can certainly plant the seeds of doubt in the public’s mind, can’t we?"

"And what about the speech Jax is scheduled to give in Newburgh later this month?

Siebert pulled out some papers. "We’re working on that, but I think we have some surprises planned that Mr. Jacks won’t be expecting. It should really throw him and his campaign for a loop."

Carly grinned. "Mr. Siebert, have I told you just how MUCH I enjoy working with you?"

To be continued…..