Lovers by Judith Krantz

now on I’ll deny it,” she added with a renewal of her habitual energy. “I’ve been worried about you. Zach is away so much, and your job isn’t nearly enough for your scope, but you seemed so content to let things go on as they were … I didn’t want to stir things up in your little love nest. This is great news, just stupendous! What kind of agency? Is it that new place that was trying to recruit you before the babies were born? Frost something?”
    “Right, same place. Archie Rourke, Byron Berenson Bernheim the Third, and Victoria Frost.”
    “Oh yes, I remember, Millicent Caldwell’s daughter,” Billy said in the voice she used unconsciously when she spoke of those few women she considered her peers. “What’s the daughter like?”
    “I haven’t met her yet. But the guys are wonderful.”
    “Married?” Billy asked sharply.
    “No they’re not. God, you’re conventional.”
    “You will be too, when you’ve been married three times. Just watch out for them. No office romances.”
    “But weren’t you Ellis’s secretary?”
    “That was the exception.” Billy shrugged and blushed faintly. “I still don’t recommend it. Does Spider know?”
    “Yes, I have his blessing. He understood perfectly, even why I have to leave so quickly.”
    “But, darling, we can’t let you go without a going-away party. Josie can arrange it in an hour.”
    Gigi growled and complained, but Billy, already at the phone, dialing Josie at the office, paid no attention. As sheheard the familiar sound of Billy issuing a long list of detailed instructions, Gigi realized that this was an opportunity to get away before she had to hear anything more about the powers of the fearful, mind-bending twins. She kissed the top of Billy’s head, waved, and disappeared down the corridor, closing the door behind her. As she walked toward the staircase she crossed the path of the admirable nanny, carrying a basket of newly washed baby clothes.
    “Nanny Elizabeth, may I ask you something?” Gigi said, stopping her. “Is it my imagination, or is Mrs. Elliott overly … involved … in taking care of the boys?”
    “My first-time mothers are always over or under, Gigi. I’ve never had an even-keeled one yet, not in twenty years,” the sturdy Midwestern woman said, smiling and unsurprised. “Now, Mrs. Elliott’s definitely way over—I think it was that book that did it—but there’s nothing to worry about, she’s as strong as a horse, and I give it another month or two to taper off to normal. When they’re under-involved, I do get concerned. It’s not that I mind the extra work, but the mothers themselves miss so much.”
    “Do you believe that babies actually control adults with their eyes?”
    “Well, of course, everybody knows that, Gigi. And if it weren’t with their eyes, it would be with something else, count on it, the little devils.”
    After Gigi left, Billy noticed the box tied with blue satin ribbon. She opened it with immediate curiosity, realizing that Gigi had become too caught up in the discussion about the twins to give it to her. Under layers of tissue she found a peignoir made of gleaming satin in a particularly voluptuous shade of pink. It was elaborately decorated, with deep insets of Valencienne cream lace at the throat. Lace insets, four inches apart, ran vertically down the length of the garment all the way to the hem, where the lace foamed into a wide flounce that trailed on the floor.On the arms of the peignoir, more lace fell from mid-arm to the wrist.
    Entranced, Billy carried the peignoir into her bathroom and put it on in front of a full-length mirror, pulling it closely together so that her jeans and shirt were completely hidden. Another woman looked at her from her mirror, a woman with many a seductive secret, a woman she had forgotten she had ever been. She gazed at herself with astonishment and an immediate feeling that she was startled to identify as sexual arousal. Good grief, what was