“I don’t know how I feel anymore, Mack. And I don’t think any of this can be resolved on the telephone. If you do come back for Thanksgiving, maybe we can talk then.” Eliza glanced at her watch. She should be down in makeup. “I have to go.”
Staring at her reflection in the mirror, Eliza frowned.
“God, I look awful.”
“No you don’t, sweetie,” Doris reassured her, “and when I’m through with you, you’ll look dynamite.”
“Well, you better get out a tub of concealer. Look at those bags!”
Doris gently patted the white cream on the gray circles beneath Eliza’s eyes.
“You didn’t sleep well again last night?”
“No. I fall asleep by midnight, but I’m wide awake at two. I lie there and think and worry, watching the clock and only getting more anxious that I won’t be able to fall back to sleep and then I’ll be exhausted the next day. It’s a vicious cycle.”
“You’ve got a lot on your mind, honey. No wonder you can’t sleep. Think you should get some sleeping pills?” Doris suggested.
Eliza shrugged. “Maybe. But I want to avoid that if I can. I’m afraid I’ll go into a deep sleep and won’t wake up if something happens and Janie needs me. Besides, I’m so busy right now, I don’t have time to get to the doctor.”
“I have some at home,” Doris offered. “I’ll bring them in tomorrow. You can try them if you want and see if they work for you.”
The makeup artist’s handiwork could only do its magic to a point. Eliza still looked tired.
“Try to rest up this weekend, Eliza. Turn your mind off.”
“How can I do that, Doris? Let’s not even go into the guards outside my house and the kooks out there, wherever they are. Mack called.”
“What did he want?” Doris asked dourly.
“Someone sent him that picture of Samuel and me in the newspaper.”
“Good. I wish I’d thought of that.”
A half-smile formed on Eliza’s painted lips. “He wants to try to work things out.”
“How do you feel?”
“Conflicted.”
In the president’s office, Yelena Gregory watched the Evening Headlines with concern. Eliza wasn’t looking her usual luminous self. In a perfect world perhaps it wouldn’t matter what the person delivering the news looked like. But this was the real world. Presentation counted right up there with content if you wanted to get good ratings.
She could well understand the strain Eliza was under. Yelena had been keeping abreast of the security problems. Joe Connelly had reassured her just this afternoon that something should be coming from the phone company soon on the threatening calls.
It damned well better.