June had just rigged the election to make sure Mimi won. More than likely, she’d forged a ballot to take the place of the one she’d destroyed. Charlotte shook her head in disgust. Too bad the woman who had protested had been such a coward and hadn’t stuck to her guns when she’d challenged June about counting the ballots.
Charlotte turned to stare at the dining room doorway. There was no good reason to return to the dining room since everything was ready and waiting for the ladies to take their refreshment break. “Nope,” Charlotte muttered, “no reason at all.” But then she didn’t really need a reason, did she? Still, she hesitated.
Mind your own business.
Ignoring the voice of reason in her head, she grabbed a feather duster from her supply carrier and marched into the dining room. The moment she entered the room, she heard June’s announcement of the voting results.
“The winner and new president of HHS is Mimi Adams.”
“Who didn’t know that?” Charlotte grumbled to herself in the dining room.
With June’s announcement, a murmur of disbelief broke out in the parlor, then, above the chatter, a louder voice. “Ah, excuse me please. Excuse me.” The noise died down. “I don’t mean to sound like sour grapes,” the woman said, “but I would like to know what the ballot count was.”
Had to be the other candidate, Charlotte figured, as she brushed the feather duster along the edges of the buffet. Rita something or other was her name if she remembered right.
“Of course, Rita,” June answered. “The vote was eight for you and nine for Mimi.”
Charlotte winced. Even to her ears, June’s tone dripped with condescension.
“It was a close vote,” June continued. “But we all know that ‘close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.’”
“Or when there’s cheating going on,” Rita shot back. “May I please see the ballots.”
Rita’s own condescending tone more than matched June’s, and Charlotte could just imagine the hateful looks bouncing back and forth between the two women.
“Gladly,” June retorted. “Here, count ’em yourself.”
Several moments passed, and the parlor was so quiet that Charlotte fancied she could hear the rustling of the ballots being counted by Rita. For all the good it would do her, Charlotte thought. The fix was in. June had made sure of it.
“Well?” June demanded. “Are you satisfied now?”
“Not by a long shot,” Rita snapped back. “Winning by only one vote is just a bit obvious, don’t you think, especially when you went slinking off to the kitchen to count the votes all by yourself. Without any witnesses, I might add.”
“Now you just hold on there,” Mimi cried. “June would never—”
Rita interrupted with a shout. “No, Mimi, you hold on! Secret ballots are one thing, but this is carrying things too far. And anyone with any scruples at all would offer to let everyone vote again and count the votes in the presence of everyone—which is what should have been done to begin with.”
The silence was deafening. Charlotte held her breath, waiting to see if Mimi would give in to Rita’s demands. But Mimi didn’t say a word, and after a moment it was Rita who finally spoke again. “That’s it! I’m out of here. I don’t like cheaters. Never have. And you know exactly what you can do with your election and your precious HHS,” she added.
“Hey, Rita, wait for me,” a voice called out. “I’m going with you.”
“Me too,” another voice chimed in.
“Me three,” yet another voice spoke up.
Mere seconds later, the front door slammed so hard that the sound echoed throughout the house. There was a brief moment of dead silence, and then the room burst into an uproar.
Buzzing bees, thought Charlotte. Angry buzzing bees. But no, not bees. Bees were much too tame by comparison. It was more like Rita had stirred up the mother of all hornets’ nests.
Several loud raps sounded. “Order, please,” Mimi cried, but the women ignored her. “Ladies!” Mimi rapped sharply again and kept rapping until the chatter finally died to a low murmur. “I think that now would be a good time for our break,” she said, her voice quivering with emotion. “There’s coffee, wine, and pastries in the dining room across the hallway. We’ll reconvene in about twenty minutes.”
Uh oh. Suddenly realizing that her presence in the dining room could be construed as eavesdropping, Charlotte tucked her feather duster beneath her arm and hurried back into the kitchen. She was bent over her supply carrier when Mimi entered the room only seconds later. Charlotte straightened. Mimi’s face was pale, and she looked as if any minute she were going to burst into tears.
“Charlotte, I’m going upstairs for a few minutes,” Mimi said, an edge of desperation in her voice. “Would you please make sure that everyone has what they need?” Without waiting for Charlotte’s answer, she turned and fled the room.
Charlotte wanted to feel sorry for Mimi, and she did, but only up to a point. In Charlotte’s opinion, Mimi had no one but herself to blame for the fiasco with Rita. She could have let the group vote again, as Rita had requested. That would have been the gracious thing to do, the fair thing. But she hadn’t, and because she hadn’t, and because of what June had done, Charlotte just couldn’t sympathize as much as she would have under other circumstances.
With a sigh, Charlotte wandered into the dining room to check on things. Whether she agreed or disagreed with what Mimi and June had done didn’t matter in the long run. What mattered right now was that Mimi was her employer, and she still had a job to finish.
Even with a dozen women milling around, the dining room was large enough that it wasn’t overly crowded. Charlotte paused just inside the doorway and glanced around. She spotted June almost immediately standing near the buffet with a glass of wine in her hand. Looking as innocent as a newborn lamb, she was laughing and talking to a small group of women. Almost as soon as Charlotte saw June, June glanced up and saw Charlotte. June abruptly excused herself from the group and made a beeline for Charlotte.
When she reached Charlotte, she took her by the arm and pulled her just inside the kitchen. “Do you know where Mimi got off to?”
Charlotte didn’t appreciate the accusatory tone in June’s voice at all—a tone that insinuated that Mimi’s disappearance was Charlotte’s fault. She firmly pulled her arm from June’s grasp and fought the urge to rub it, not from pain, but simply because she also didn’t appreciate being manhandled by anyone, least of all someone who was almost a complete stranger. Using all the self-control she could muster, she said, “Mimi went upstairs for a few moments.”
June’s face wrinkled with concern. “Did she say why?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Hmm, maybe I’d better go check on her, just to make sure she’s okay.” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know how much of what went on in there you heard”—she waved toward the parlor—“but we had a little altercation with one of the members—a slight misunderstanding—and, well, the member got upset, and Mimi—poor thing—takes
