Spy in a Little Black Dress - By Maxine Kenneth Page 0,12

native New Orleans…

… [undated]… the Great Man has become too powerful and his recent rulings have made many powerful enemies back in the U.S. of A., including his chief financial supporter, Cornelius Vanderbilt. I fear that our days in this country are now numbered.

… April 30th, 1857… it is late at night and I find myself a partner in a momentous secret undertaking. Knowing of my friendship with Maria Consuela, the Great Man has charged me with the responsibility of spiriting her out of Nicaragua and escorting her to safety in Cuba. The Americans will be landing on the morrow with express orders to place Walker under arrest. Under cover of darkness, I will flee with Maria Consuela and the Great Man’s treasure to Cuba. I will pray for a moonless night.

… [undated]… we have landed safety in Cuba. I wonder how the Great One is faring back in Granada. Whatever his fate, his treasure is safe here. I will mark its location with a map. Once I have ascertained that Maria Consuela is safe, too, I shall endeavor to return to the U.S. of A., where I hope to resume my career as a professional soldier.

Jackie was surprised to find that there was a small gap in the dates until the unnamed diarist picked up his account again. But there was no time to read them because here was Charlie, on time for their lunch. She put the book and the diary pages away in her pocketbook and rose to greet Charlie. Finding out the unnamed diarist’s fate would have to wait.

“One thing you need to know about Jack Kennedy is that as soon as he has a woman, he loses interest,” Charlie Bartlett told Jackie over lunch. “The chase is everything to him, the challenge of getting the woman to say yes, and then he’s off to the next one. He has a voracious sexual appetite; it’s like Chinese food—an hour after a meal, he’s hungry again.”

Jackie glanced around the room, hoping that no one in the crowd of politicos in conservative suits and dowagers in tasteful outfits had overheard Charlie. She didn’t want anyone to know that she was having lunch with him so that he could brief her in preparation for her date with Jack Kennedy. When she expressed concern that they might bump into Jack at the popular Au Pied de Cochon, Charlie had assured her that the congressman always brought his lunch in a brown paper bag to the Cannon House Office Building. “Sometimes, the security guards mistake him for a tourist and try to stop him from going up to his office,” Charlie had told her, laughing.

Jackie had to laugh too. “Bringing his lunch in a brown paper bag to the office doesn’t sound like much of a ladies’ man,” she said.

“Well, he’s not the kind of ladies’ man who romances a woman, takes her out to lunch, sends her flowers, or writes love notes to her. He’s a Don Juan type—the kind of rake that women find irresistible. In that respect, he takes after his father.” Charlie carefully buttered his chunk of baguette and gave Jackie a questioning look. “You’ve heard about Joe Kennedy and Gloria Swanson, haven’t you?”

Jackie nodded. It seemed that all of Washington knew about Joe Kennedy’s scandalous affair with the famous actress, whom he had met years ago when he was a Hollywood producer. Tongues were still wagging about how Joe would bring his mistress into the family home in Hyannis Port and make love to her there while his kids were around and his peripatetic wife, Rose, was shopping in Paris or praying in a shrine in Rome.

“It’s odd, but Jack’s father always wanted him to be privy to his extramarital affairs,” Charlie said, pausing to take a bite of his coq au vin and a swallow of his pinot noir. “Joe would give him an explicit description of every woman he slept with, and when Jack got older, Joe constantly talked about exchanging girls with him.”

Jackie picked at her salad niçoise and pretended to be shocked, but her own father had exhibited a similar predilection, drawing her into his lecherous affairs as a confidante when she was a child. Black Jack even told his little daughter how he had slipped away from her mother on their honeymoon while sailing to England on the Aquitania and had made love with heiress Doris Duke. Whenever Jackie was alone with him, her father would point out different women and