Chapter 30

Wally Holland didn't even know Abegail was abroad until the following February when he received her terse and somewhat detached distantly posted Christmas card for 1935.

In many ways, the six years Abegail spent with Stanfield in diplomatic service in tropical Kuala Lumpur were the happiest of her life. As rich and official Americans they lived like royalty, and every whim was seen to by someone else. Although they were physically closer to the gathering world war than anyone in the United States was, in terms of its effect on their lives, they were as far away from trouble and concern as they possibly could be.

Still though, Abegail had some reason to regret that she wasn't home. In the spring of 1937, she became a grandmother. She didn't feel like a grandmother, certainly, and those in her community certainly didn't see the raven-haired beauty as a grandmother. But Hammer and his wife, Jezzica, had produced a son nonetheless, who they named Jasper, after both Jezzica's and Hammer's