Chapter 9

In the morning I was awakened by Constance, letting herself into my suite and announcing that the First Lady wanted me to join her, in their quarters, for breakfast in thirty minutes. I glanced at the beside clock and realized it was after seven, so I hopped up, showered, took care of a number of feminine things and realized that I must have missed a period, because it was over four weeks, and I hadn't had one.

When I mentioned it to Constance, she laughed at me. "Angela, you had it while you were unconscious. It only lasted three days, and part of a fourth, but it came and went, because I found the blood stain and everybody got excited until the surgeon determined it was perfectly natural."

I huffed and puffed, but let it go. To be perfectly honest, I was glad to have missed it. Constance hurried me along, and disappeared as a Secret Service Agent let me into the inner sanctum of the family quarters. Polly was running around, dressing, talking on the phone, and giving her assistant things to do, all at the same time.

When she saw me, she smiled like a sunny day and motioned for me to sit at a small ice cream table that was set for two. As soon as I sat down, a woman walked in and filled a glass with fresh squeezed orange juice for both of us, took the top off of a silver bowl and served fresh fruit into a pair of small crystal bowls, and set them at each place setting, along with uncovering a basket of sweet breads.

It looked like breakfast was served.

Polly finished her phone calls, buttoned up her blouse, and dismissed her assistant by saying, "I am having breakfast with my newly adopted daughter, and we will do so in private. Please hold all calls, except for my husband, who SHOULD have been up here by now."

Hearing that Hawk was expected for breakfast, meant the second place setting wasn't for me, and I immediately stood up and stepped away from the table. Polly looked positively confused, and asked, "My dear, what are you doing? Don't you want any breakfast?"

I was thoroughly confused. "Mrs. Dryden, if Mr. Dryden is coming in for breakfast, then I am sitting in his chair."

She gave me a look that I was to become intimately familiar with, and said, "Angela, my dear. Hamilton will be along shortly, but breakfast is for the two of us. My husband eats at his desk most mornings, and I am thrilled that you are here to share breakfast, so sit down.

"Oh ... And by the way ... Please refrain from calling me Mrs. Dryden. We are family now, and I hope you feel comfortable calling me mother. If not, Polly will do fine. Hamilton hopes you will call him Dad. I do too." She flicked her napkin just so, and it landed perfectly across her lap. Polly Dryden had lots of class, and plenty of steel in her.

We were going to get along. I could tell.

"Ok ... Mother..." I giggled just a hair when I said it het first time. Polly smiled at me like I had given her the world's best Mother's Day gift and we had our breakfast.

Hawk showed up just as our server was clearing our dishes, and made a show out of kissing us both. "Good morning, my lovely ladies!" He was in a wonderful mood. If I was part of the reason, then so be it.

Polly and he talked non-stop about things that made no sense, so I stayed silent and let them have their time together. I knew from personal experience that personal time for the first family was hard to come by. When they seemed like they had their intimate business handled, Hawk looked at me, and said, "How did your first night under our roof go, Angela? I looked, and you didn't crawl into bed with us, so I assume you made out alright?" His smile was a mirror of Polly's so I guess they were pretty pleased to have adopted me.

We chatted about inconsequential things until Hawk rose, kissed us both, and announced, "We have to make a trip." He turned to me, and said, "I know you have graduated from high school, and have no pressing appointments since the shooting, so I included you in our plans. I hope that's Ok."

I smiled and nodded.

"Good. Then we all leave tomorrow afternoon for London. A very important member of the Royal Family died from the plague, and funerals have had to be held up until it was safe for families to come together, so the funeral is day after tomorrow.

"Baby," Hawk said to Polly, "Can you make sure the staff has us all packed and ready to leave just before dinner? We can eat in our private space on board, and introduce Angela to the rigors of being the new child of the First Family, while we're at it."

He was full of smiles. This one was all for me. "Angela, please embrace these things as a great adventure, instead of seeing them as a bother, and I promise that we will all have a great time." He hugged us both, and left to go back to work.

Polly watched his back disappear through the guarded doorway, turned to me, and said, "Well young lady ... I guess you and I need to go dress shopping!" That clearly pleased her. "Let me call Eloise, and make sure she is on board with our needs."

Polly picked up the phone beside the table, and an operator responded immediately. "The three of us are unexpectedly heading to London tomorrow. We'll need our things readied, and my daughter and I will need a car to take us dress shopping after lunch."

She barely put the phone down when the door opened and her assistant, Eloise stepped in, flowed by Renata and another agent. "Mrs. Dryden, Donna Karan has asked us if you might like her to dress you for some special occasion, and I understand she is in town, today. May I call her for you?"

Polly thought it over, and said, "Besides my need, Angela needs something fresh and appropriate for the funeral, but at least three more gowns for the reception, and dinners. Find out if that is possible, and is so, let me know, and we'll forego shopping. Otherwise we need to get to it, if we are not going to embarrass the President tomorrow night." Eloise took her words to heart and went to work on it.