Page 180 of Never

Pauline turned to the others. ‘I fucked that up royally, didn’t I?’ she said.

‘Yeah,’ said Gus. ‘You did.’

***

Pauline left the Oval Office and went to the Residence to say goodbye to her daughter and husband.

Pippa was leaving on a three-day school trip to Boston, staying two nights at a budget hotel. The pupils would visit the Kennedy Museum as part of their history course. The trip included tours of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Former pupils of Foggy Bottom Day School who were now college students would show them around. Foggy Bottom parents were very keen on elite universities.

The school had asked for two parents to accompany the trip and act as supervisors and marshals, and Gerry had volunteered. He and Pippa would each be accompanied by a Secret Service team, as always. The school was accustomed to bodyguards: several pupils were the children of high-profile parents.

Gerry had one small suitcase. He would wear the same tweed suit for three days, changing only his shirt and underwear. Pippa had packed at least two outfits per day, and needed two suitcases plus an overstuffed carry-on bag. Pauline made no comment on the luggage. She was not surprised. A school trip was an exciting social occasion, and everyone wanted to look cool. Romances would begin and end. The boys would bring a bottle of vodka, which would result in at least one girl making a fool of herself. Someone else would try smoking cigarettes and throw up. Pauline just hoped no one would get arrested.

‘How many grown-ups are going?’ Pauline asked Pippa as she hauled her bags into the Center Hall.

‘Four,’ said Pippa. ‘My unfavourite teacher, Mr Newbegin; his mousy wife, who’s coming as a volunteer parent; Ms I-know-best Judd; and Daddy.’

Pauline glanced at Gerry, who was busying himself putting a strap around his case. So he was going to spend two nights in a hotel with Ms Judd, concisely described by Pippa as small and blonde with big tits.

Making her voice casual, Pauline said: ‘What does Ms Judd’s husband do? Schoolteachers often marry schoolteachers. I bet Mr Judd is a teacher too.’

Without looking at Pauline, Gerry said: ‘No idea.’

Pippa said: ‘I think she’s divorced. Anyway she doesn’t wear a wedding ring.’

Just fancy that, Pauline thought.

Was this why Gerry had changed – because he had fallen for someone else? Or was it the other way around? Had he become disaffected with Pauline and then got interested in Amelia Judd? Probably the two things had worked together, his disenchantment with Pauline heightened by a growing attraction to Ms Judd.

A White House porter took the baggage away. Pauline hugged Pippa and felt a sense of loss. This was the first time Pippa had been on a trip that was not a family holiday. Soon she would want to spend a summer touring Europe by rail with girls of her own age. Then she would go to college and live in a dorm; then she would want to share an apartment off campus for her sophomore year; and then how soon would it be before she moved in with a boy? Her childhood had gone by too fast. Pauline wanted to live through those years again, and relish them more the second time.

‘Have a great trip, but don’t misbehave,’ she said.

‘My daddy will be watching me,’ Pippa said. ‘While the others are playing strip poker and snorting cocaine, I’ll have to be drinking warm milk and reading a book by Scott frigging Fitzgerald.’

Pauline could not help laughing. Pippa could be a pain in the neck but she was funny too.

Pauline went to Gerry and tilted her face for a kiss. He brushed his lips against hers as if he was in a hurry. ‘Goodbye,’ he said. ‘Keep the world safe while we’re gone.’

They left, and Pauline retreated to her bedroom for a few minutes of quiet. Sitting at her dressing table, she asked herself whether she really thought Gerry was having an affair. Dull old Gerry? If so she would soon know. Illicit lovers usually thought they were being rigorously discreet, but an observant woman could always read the signs.

Pauline had never met Ms Judd but had spoken to her on the phone and found her intelligent and thoughtful. It was hard to believe she would go to bed with someone else’s husband. But women did, of course, all the time, millions of them, every day.

There was a tap at the door and she heard the voice of Cyrus, the butler, a long-time member of the White House domestic staff. ‘Madam President, the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of State are here for lunch.’

‘I’ll be right there.’

Her two most important advisors had spent the last hour or two trying to find out more about Chinese intentions, and the three of them had agreed to meet at lunch to decide what to do next. Pauline got up from her dressing table and walked along the Center Hall to the Dining Room.

She sat down to a plate of seafood in a cream sauce with rice. ‘What have we learned?’ she said.

Chess said: ‘The Chinese won’t speak to the Vietnamese. I’ve had the Vietnamese foreign minister almost in tears telling me that Wu Bai won’t take his calls. The British have proposed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the sinking of theVu Trong Phung, and the Chinese are furious that there’s no motion against the drone attack.’

Pauline nodded and looked at Gus.

He said: ‘The CIA station in Beijing has a more or less amiable relationship with Chang Kai, the head of the Guoanbu, the Chinese intelligence service.’

‘I’ve heard that name before.’