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most romantic woman he had ever met, and, at the same time, the most
sensuous. She wrote him poems that were tender and symbolic, and then
made love to him like a brazen trollop.
Like all those who loved Pat, he was concerned about her well-being.
She seemed too delicate and too refined to have to go to work each day,
but she needed to work, so Hap created a little public relations job
for her. She missed a lot of work. She was often ill, sometimes
hospitalized, and he visited his pale, wan mistress, held her hand, and
promised her that he would take care of her, although she must
understand that their affair would be very, very private.
She always agreed and Hap felt safe, pleased that he had found himself
a woman both sultry and sensible. Hap's government position meant they
could be together almost all the time. He had meetings to go to,
political functions, reasons that he couldn't get home in the evenings
or on weekends. He and Pat dined out often. His wife was a comforting
hour's commute away from Atlanta and it was highly unlikely that they
would run into her or any hometown friends.
Since Pat had no office skills and precious little formal education,
there wasn't much that she could do for the Department of Energy, but
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there was a lot she could do for the department head. She and Hap took
long lunches and whole days off together, driving around the
countryside, watching the verdant vegetation of summer change to gold
and orange in autumn.
Hap sent Pat flowers-roses. She adored roses. He bought her a gold
cameo pendant and she began to collect cameos. She treasured each of
his gifts. "She told me they would go out to the country and have a
picnic by a stream," Susan remembered.
"He'd put his head in her lap while she read Victorian poems to him. I
think she really loved Hap, and she used to tell me that he was going
to 'come for her' one day, and she'd be waiting for him. It was as if
she expected him to come riding up and sweep her into his arms."
Pat seemed to be truly devoted to Hap Brown. If he was not exactly a
knight in shining armor riding to her rescue, maybe she saw him as a
father figure who would care for her always. She wanted so much to be
the one and only woman in Hap Brown's life.
And sometimes, she seemed to be. Hap looked at her with eyes poleaxed
by love. Although he insisted on discretion, she suspected a lot of
people knew about them. She saw the lifted eyebrows in the office when
she slipped away to meet him. She didn't care. The sooner his wife
faced the truth the better.
Then Hap would be free to come for her.
Hap Brown quickly realized he would get only the frostiest welcome at
the house on Tell Road. Margureitte was outspoken in her disapproval
of the relationship. The Radcliffes were too proper to confront him
directly, and if they had, Pat would have thrown the tantrum to end all
tantrums. But the message was there: We do not approve.
Pat took instead to entertaining her married lover at Susan and Bill's
apartment. She had used the apartment before to meet other married
men, but she prevailed upon Susan to serve drinks and appetizers and to
"be nice to Hap." Susan saw that Hap was "courting" her mother in the
old-fashioned sense of the word. He was gallant and kind and
generous.
But he was still married, and he seemed in no hurry to change that
arrangement.
Pat made no secret of her intentions. Susan remembered her mother
pleading, "Take me home, Hap. Take me home to North Carolina."
"She wanted to go back with the aunts and back where Grandma Siler
was," Susan sighed. "Hap couldn't just leave and take her there, and
they'd fight and she'd cry."
Pat enlisted Susan's aid in her campaign to capture Hap, suggesting
that she call Hap "Dad." Susan balked at that, and Pat countered,
"Well, at least you could say, 'When are you going to marry my mom and
be our father?"
" Susan already had a father, but she finally got up the nerve to blurt
out, "I hear you-all are getting married?"
Hap froze as he reached for an appetizer, drew back his hand, and
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