Chapter 13: Or Was It?

Christmas found Elspeth back on Beacon Hill. Dr. Richards was in New Jersey having Christmas with her toddler niece. Though Cindy would not remember it, she was born prematurely and barely survived her first few weeks. Now at her second Christmas, Cindy was evidently into everything. Dr. Richards wanted to spend time with her and Elspeth felt it would be intruding for her to crash the family gathering.

If not for that, Elspeth had things she wanted to discuss. Days before, and barely a week before the filing deadline, Allan Morton announced that he had lung cancer. He wanted Dr. Richards to take over his bid for Nashua Alderman. Elspeth did not need to guess which way that decision would go. Had she stayed in Nashua, she could have organized the beginnings of Dr. Richards’ campaign.

Still, there was one bright spot. Both Richard Willingham and Dr. Richards were coming to Boston to ring in the New Year. As she sat on the floor, opening an alpaca wool sweater, Elspeth wondered if her shirttail cousin knew ballroom dance. Dancing with Dr. Richards was not the thrill it had been the week of the big wedding. Later, as she sipped her mother’s famous mulled cider, Elspeth wondered if there would ever be a true partner for her to dance with.

The New Year’s party did nothing to shake her ennui. As expected, she and Dr. Richards did several dances, but Ro was hopeless. In self-defense, Elspeth sought out a couple of men to lure onto the floor. If they were gay, that was not an issue for her and it made for good selfies. Dr. Richards spent most of her time talking to Ro. Though Elspeth envied her ease and poise, she recognized that Dr. Richards also felt the lack of dance partners. It was an uncomfortable event all around.

The next day was surreal. Grandmother had invited Elspeth and Dr. Richards over for tea. As was her habit, Elspeth poured for everyone. Neither Grandmother nor Dr. Richards dropped a word of their conversation as they accepted their cups. Were it not for the nods of recognition, Elspeth felt she could have been a coat rack. To make things worse, the subject of the long conversation was family and the continuity of generations. Elspeth felt like a chain of one link.

After the depressing holidays, Elspeth was looking forward to New Hampshire and the circle of ladies. She and Dr. Richards barely made it back before a blizzard hit. So began a cycle of bad weather and work snatched from any opportunity. Elspeth had the easy part, being able to run the campaign, such as it was, from Nashua. Dr. Richards spent two days out of three driving either north or south, regardless of the conditions. Elspeth worried.

In this, she was not alone. Dr. Richards became stuck in a snowbank near Boston. As she waited for the tow truck, Dr. Richards informed Elspeth that she planned to hire a driver. Finally, Elspeth had something interesting to relate to her circle of ladies.

Dr. Richards had interned in an outreach center in Roxbury. She returned to the center and announced try-outs. Out of a pool of hundreds, three finalists were chosen. The three and Dr. Richards drove to the Residence in New Jersey. There, Johnson Lee was named the winner and new addition to the team. All the ladies found Elspeth’s descriptions to be great fun.

What was not fun was the need for new living arrangements. Fortunately, Dr. Richards was able to trade up apartments in the same building, though once again Elspeth had a move to organize. At least it was to a three-bedroom penthouse apartment, so something truly suitable for an aspiring politician. Elspeth found that she liked the view from the patio, though the unchecked wind was usually stiff and biting cold. The campaign almost became an afterthought.

Soon it passed from afterthought to achievement. Dr. Richards managed to get the candidates together and intimidated them all. Technically, it was a debate, but the real action was backstage beforehand. The previous front runner stumbled onto the stage, already red-faced. This brought laughter from the high school students providing the audience. Within a week he resigned and the other two never put up a struggle.

Suddenly, it was over. During the first spring thaw, Dr. Richards was elected with a convincing 57%. Elspeth spent the next week arranging a virtual office since Dr. Richards would rarely be available in person. Elspeth found it ironic that the tiny physical office had a steel desk almost identical to the one she had loved in Concord. She even had Dr. Richards tie her up and spank her on it, but you can never go back.

That said, going forward was not looking as grim as before. While Elspeth’s personal life was unchanged, everything in her work life was different. Though the pay for her position was token, Dr. Richards’ commitment was set in stone. If Dr. Richards was committed, then so was Elspeth. The upshot, since Dr. Richards was still on the road more days than not, was that Elspeth needed to do all the grunt work. That, at least, was nothing new.

Elspeth quickly discovered that Dr. Richards’ official Alderman secretary essentially worked full time for Paul Dean and James Dowd, two of the at-large Aldermen. A few questions to Dr. Richards’ ladies lay everything bare. Dean and Dowd were trying to take over Nashua’s political structure. The reason was purely financial.