“The latter, mostly. We’re just living our lives, and no matter what we do, everybody hates us for something.” She pauses. “Is this how Harry and Meghan feel?”
Jordan snorts. “Maybe.” Then, “Yeah, probably.” Then, “Aside from the article, what do people hate you for?”
Natalie thinks about it and begins to tick her list off on her fingers. “Let’s see. The hardscrabble Vermonters hate us for being organic. We have to create a buffer between our land and theirs, you know, to make sure that whatever they’re fertilizing can’t get on our land. They hate us for creating a buffer. They hate us for selling off some of our stock so we could repopulate with organic cows; they thought that was disrespectful to the former owners, who were their friends. They hate us for selling our milk for so much more, but it’s really expensive to run an organic farm so of course we have to sell it for more. That’s just economics. They think that we think we’re too good for the public schools—”
“Do you think that?” asks Jordan.
“Sort of. I mean, other way around. We think the public schools aren’t as—well, aren’t the same as they are in Lenox, let’s put it that way.” Lenox has excellent public schools. All three of the Shipman girls are products of them, of course.
“Diplomatic,” says Jordan.
“The people in the feed store laughed the first time I bought Carhartts, and I could feel them getting ready to hate me too. But I need Carhartts! Lined Carhartts! I do actually milk the cows. It’s cold out there in the early morning.”
“Fair,” says Jordan. “Lined Carhartts don’t seem unreasonable.”
“I could tell they thought I was buying them to look cute.”
“You do look cute in them.”
“Well, thank you.” She smiles briefly. She’s running out of fingers. “And now these people online! The vitriol. The judgment. I didn’t ask for any of this.” She massages her temples.
Jordan clears her throat.
“What?” says Natalie.
“Didn’t you, though?”
“Didn’t I what?”
“Ask for it.”
“No.” HowdareJordan. “Who asks for vitriol?”
Jordan rubs at an imaginary spot on the island with her thumb and, without looking up, says, “Didn’t you open yourself up to it the first time you called yourself a tradwife? Or called yourself anything, and wanted people to pay attention?”
“What?No.” Natalie hurries to explain, to make it right. “That’s just a hashtag. To get more views. But the beliefs behind it are real. It’s a movement back toward tradition. Traditional doesn’t mean bad. But people get it all mixed up. I mean, even you—you don’t hate me, but you don’t like me enough to help me.”
“Of course I like you. I even love you. By law, I have to. We’re sisters.”
Natalie laughs and says, “I don’t think that’s a law. Plenty of sisters hate each other.”
Jordan’s voice goes level, and she’s not meeting Natalie’s eyes. “I just don’t believe in everything you’re doing, I guess is what I’ve been trying to say. And that makes it hard for me.”
Natalie can’t believe this. “Oh, I’m sorry. You don’t believe in whatI’mdoing? What about that guy from Congress you helped, the one who waved his dick around at his intern? You agreed with what he was doing?”
“Natalie,” says Jordan.
“What?”
“First of all, no, of course I didn’t agree with what he was doing. And second, that’s not how we phrase it in the industry.”
“How do you phrase it, then?”
Jordan clears her throat again as if she’s making room for her professional voice. “We say, ‘Representative So-and-So was going through a challenging personal time and is now seeking professional treatment. He fully owns the consequences of his actions and has expressed to Intern So-and-So his deep sorrow and regret. He hopes to move forward from here and continue to serve this great country as his constituents have trusted him to do for the past twelve years.’?”
Despite herself, Natalie is impressed with Jordan’s smooth tongue, her facility with language. “Not bad. So why does it matter if you believe in me? Why can’t you pretend I’m a client like that guy?”
Jordan takes a long time before answering, like she’s really thinking about it. “Maybe it’s different because I know you. I can tell what’s authentic and what’s not.”
