“I told you, it’s not free.”
Edward snorted softly. “There’s always a price. I learned that much from you.”
“You should have learned something else from me. Trust no one.”
Edward’s eyes narrowed. “Including you?”
“Your choice, of course. I know there’s a theory going around that I somehow sabotaged Hastings in the past eighteen months. But do you really believe I’m the one behind your problems?”
Edward looked at him for a long time.
“No,” he said eventually. “I don’t. I never did believe it.”
“Why not?”
Edward’s mouth twisted in a grim smile. “For the same reason your new companion gave Diana—you’d have done a better job of it. I’d be standing in the smoking ruins of the company by now. Instead I’m being slowly bled to death. That’s not your style. You can be cold-blooded but you aren’t into long-term pain and suffering.”
“What security steps have you taken?”
“The usual. I brought in an outside forensic accountant who conducted a full-scale audit. I also had a security firm run new background checks on all employees. Nothing. The clients are just quietly fading away. Contracts aren’t being renewed. New ones aren’t being signed. I’m in a death spiral. I need financing and I can’t get it because of the rumors. Some of my best people are looking for jobs with other firms. You want the truth? I’m starting to think a merger is my only option.”
“You’re in no position to negotiate one that will be favorable to you and your employees,” Julius said.
“Don’t you think I know that? But the alternative is to let the company go under, and that would be worse for everyone, including my employees and the family.”
“You said you brought in a security firm to investigate your employees.”
Edward steepled his fingertips. “They came up with nothing.”
“What about your board of directors? Did you have everyone on it investigated?”
Edward did not move. “Are you serious? You know damn well that every member of the board is a member of the family. Each and every one has a strong, vested interest in the success of the company.”
“You know what they say about family feuds. And I can tell you from recent experience that people rarely think logically in situations that present them with an opportunity to punish someone they think deserves punishment.”
Edward tapped his fingers together and looked thoughtful.
“Damn,” he said very softly.
“People tell you that they operate on logic and reason but that’s not how it works,” Julius said. “I thought you learned that from me as well. The truth is, most folks make their decisions based on their emotions. After the decision is made, they can always find reasons to justify the action.”
“Everyone has a hidden agenda. Arkwright’s Rule Number Two.” Edward got to his feet. He walked to the window and looked out at the city. “It’s true, not everyone on my board likes the idea that I’m in charge now. But it’s one thing to be resentful or angry. It’s something else altogether to attempt to destroy the whole damn company.”
“When it comes to revenge, some people will go to any lengths.” Julius gripped the arms of his chair and pushed himself to his feet. “Speaking as your outside consultant, my observations these past few months indicate that the source of your problems is very close to home.”
There was a long silence before Edward exhaled slowly.
“Richard,” he said.
“Your half brother? I agree. That’s where I’d start looking if I were in your shoes.”
Edward nodded, more resigned than dismayed. “He has always resented me. Things got worse when the family put me in charge of the company after Dad died. There have been times when I wondered if he was somehow involved in the problems at Hastings but I kept telling myself that he wouldn’t do anything that was against his own best financial interests.”
“He’s probably telling himself that if he can convince the rest of the family that you aren’t up to the job of managing Hastings, the others will push you out and put him in charge.”
“That’s the kind of short-term thinking that can ruin a closely held business like Hastings.”
“Yes, it is.” Julius crossed the room and joined Edward at the window. “What are you going to do?”
“Have a talk with Richard.” Edward rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll make it clear that if he doesn’t agree to give up his seat on the board and leave quietly, I’ll take the issue to the rest of the family. He’ll step down. He won’t want the other members of the family to find out that he was trying to sabotage their main source of income—not to mention their social status.”
“I think you’re right. Richard will leave. But you’d better watch your back from now on.”
“A cheerful thought.” Edward grimaced. “I can handle Richard. But it would be good to know that I had someone I could trust on the outside to help me keep an eye on him, someone who always seems to know what’s going on in the shark pool.”
“Me?”
“You.”
“I’ll do what I can to watch your back,” Julius said.
“Thanks.” Edward’s expression tightened. “About Diana—”
“Diana and I were mismatched from the start. My fault. I convinced both of us that I could become the kind of man she wanted me to be. That was never going to be true. The two of you belong together.”
“I just want you to know that, in spite of what you suspect or the rumors that went around at the time, we were never together—not physically—until after Diana left you and after I handed in my resignation.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Julius smiled. “You were the knight in shining armor—for both of us. You saved Diana and me from a marriage that was doomed from the start.”
Edward eyed him warily. “That’s a very generous way of looking at things.”
“I’m in a different place these days. I’ve had plenty of time to think about the past and put things into perspective.” Julius paused a beat and then grinned. “What’s the matter? Afraid I’m playing you?”
“No,” Edward said. “I think you’re telling me the truth. You’re trying to close a few doors on the past so that you can move forward into the future, aren’t you? That’s why you came here today.”
“You have to excuse me. I’ve been hanging out with a positive-thinking expert lately. I’m learning to look for the silver lining. Going with the glass-half-full approach, blah, blah, blah.”
Edward raised his brows. “Blah, blah, blah?”
“Don’t worry, I haven’t completely lost my mind. Just moving in a different direction.” Julius started to turn away. He stopped. “One more thing. You’re going to need some financing to pull out of the dive.”
Edward looked at him. “Are you offering to help arrange a cash infusion?”
“Are you asking?”
Edward thought about it and then nodded. “There’s no one else I’d rather deal with at the moment. No one else I can trust. The situation is . . . fragile.”
“I know.”
“I’ve got the whole damn family and more than a thousand employees depending on me, Julius.”
“You can turn this around.”
“With a little help from a friend,” Edward said. He smiled. “Thanks.”
“Forget it.”
“No, I won’t forget it. If you ever need anything from me, just ask.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
They stood there in silence for a time, watching the ferries glide across Elliott Bay.
“That was a good after-dinner talk you gave the other night,” Edward said eventually. “Definitely your personal best. I don’t think a single person in the audience dozed off.”
“I had some coaching.”
Edward’s mouth twitched at the corners. “Grace Elland?”
“Yes.”
“According to the media, the two of you have been living dangerously lately.”
“The good news is that the excitement is over,” Julius said.
“It wasn’t just the after-dinner talk that was different,” Edward said. “You seem different.”
“Grace changed everything.”
Edward smiled. “Diana said she thought that might be the case.”
“Did she?”
“You sound surprised.” Edward laughed. “Sometimes others see things more clearly from the outside. Your advice to me today would be a prime example.”
“You didn’t see the truth about the problem on your board because you were unwilling to look in the right places.”
“Isn’t that always the case?”
“Yes.” Julius winced. “Sounds like one of those damn Witherspoon affirmations, doesn’t it?”
Edward chuckled. “Yes, it does.”
Julius glanced at his watch. “I’d better get going. If I hang around here any longer people will start to think that I’m going for a hostile takeover of Hastings.”
“You don’t want to swallow my company?”
“No.” Julius moved toward the door. “I’ve got another project in mind.”
“Yeah?” Edward watched him. “What is it?”
“Grace is going to establish a foundation. I’m her consultant.”
“You? In the do-good business?”
Julius shrugged. “Something a little different for me.”
“No offense, but working for a charitable foundation doesn’t sound like a good fit for you, Julius. You can’t help making money. It’s your gift.”
“That’s what Grace says. She’s going to take advantage of my talent to finance her foundation.”
“Sounds like she spent too much time working for that positive-thinking guru, Witherspoon.”
“You want to know a little secret?” Julius asked. “Grace was the brains of that outfit.”
“Yeah?” Edward looked intrigued. “How’s that?”
“She wrote the cookbook and the blog. Came up with the affirmations. Figured out the target audiences. Directed the online marketing. She took Witherspoon from a mid-level player straight to the big leagues.”
“Grace is that good when it comes to business?”
“She’s a natural when it comes to marketing. Unfortunately, she’s only interested in a business model that has a feel-good mission.”
“Thus your newfound interest in charity work,” Edward said. “Got it. What will you be doing, aside from backing her up with funding?”
“Her instincts are great when it comes to marketing, but where people are concerned, she has a bad habit of focusing on the positive. Way too trusting. Tends to see the best in people.”
Edward nodded in somber understanding. “That kind of naiveté leads to trouble every damn time.”
“Which is why I’ll handle the personnel end of things at the foundation. In addition to the hiring, I’ll also vet the funding applicants. Grace needs someone to filter out the con artists and the daydreamers.”
“What’s the goal of Grace’s foundation?” Edward asked.
“Lots of people think they want to open their own business.”
“Sure, it’s one of the big American dreams. Statistically speaking, most entrepreneurs lose their shirts.”
“Usually because they don’t have someone to teach them the ropes,” Julius said. “That’s what Grace’s foundation is all about. She sees it as a sort of start-up university for people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get a foot in the door because they lack the connections and the financing and the knowledge of how to navigate the system.”
Edward laughed. “You mean you actually intend to follow through on that advice you gave in your after-dinner talk? You plan to offer your services as a mentor?”
“Grace says my title will be consultant. I’m clinging to that.”
“You, Julius Arkwright, will offer free consulting advice,” Edward said neutrally.
“I’m not saying I’d be averse to making a little money on the side.” Julius smiled. “A certain percentage of those proposals that the foundation funds will prove profitable, I’m sure.”
“Now that sounds more like the Julius Arkwright I know.”
“Wait until I tell Grace,” Julius said.
“Tell her what?”
“She says no one ever remembers the details of an after-dinner speech. She claims that all the audience recalls are the emotions they felt during the talk.”
“Depends on the speech,” Edward said. “By the way, you never told me the name of your client, the one who hired you to consult here at Hastings today.”
“Grace.”
Edward got a knowing look in his eyes. “I had a feeling that might be the case. Should I ask about your fee?”
Julius opened the door and looked back over his shoulder. “She’s buying me lunch today.”
Edward laughed. Julius saw heads turn in the outer office. The expression on the receptionist’s face and on the faces of the three people waiting to speak with Edward were priceless.
Automatically, he ran the scenario in his head. The news that Arkwright and Hastings were back on good terms would be all over Seattle by the end of the day. Carefully plotted strategies designed to take advantage of the Hastings business situation would collapse. Mergers-and-acquisitions experts would look elsewhere for targets. Headhunters would think twice about trying to lure away some of Hastings’s best executives. Employees who had stayed awake at night worrying about their jobs would relax.
Julius crossed the hushed reception room, smiling a little. Grace was right about one thing, the future could be changed. And she was just the woman who could do it.
Fifty-One
She waited for Julius downstairs in the coffee shop. The grande-sized cup of organic, free-trade decaf coffee she had ordered was still nearly full because after ordering it she had concluded that her tightly strung nerves could not handle even decaf.
Like most of the other customers around her, she had her laptop open. She was supposed to be working on the mission statement for the new foundation but she had discovered that she was not yet ready to concentrate on target audiences and marketing strategies. The meeting between Julius and Edward seemed to be taking forever. A good sign, she told herself. Or maybe not a good sign.
She refused to go negative.
The moment she saw Julius walk into the coffee shop, she knew she could stop fretting. His face was as unreadable as ever, but when he got closer, she saw his eyes and knew she could relax.
“I’m hungry,” he said. “I’m ready to collect my first paycheck. Where are we going for lunch?”
“I know a nice little place that caters to vegetarians on First Ave. near the Market,” she said.
“Oh, joy.”
“But first tell me how the meeting went. I want a report.”
Julius shrugged. “I doubt if we’ll be having Thanksgiving with the Hastings family this year but Ed and I reached an understanding. He knows I’m not after his business and he knows what he has to do to save his family’s company. By the time you and I finish lunch, the rumors that Ed and I are doing business together again will have filtered through half of Seattle. The other half will get the gossip before they sit down to dinner this evening.”
“Excellent.” She smiled, satisfied. “The rumors alone will change the business dynamic of the situation for the Hastings empire.”
“Yes, they will, but here’s the thing—I don’t want to talk about business anymore today,” Julius said. “I want to talk about us.”
She paused in the act of closing her laptop. A frisson o
f hope mingled with uncertainty making her go very still. No negative thinking, she told herself. But her future was on the line and she knew it.
“Okay,” she said. “Do you want to have this conversation over lunch?”
“No. I want to have it here. Now.”
“What, exactly, do you want to discuss?” She felt as if she was walking over quicksand. One false step . . .
He reached across the little table and took her hand in his. “I love you, Grace Elland. I don’t think I ever understood what love was until I met you. It changes everything.”
It wasn’t the first time he had told her he loved her, but she knew she could never hear the words often enough. Her emotions were so dazzled that she feared she might burst into tears, right there in front of the baristas and everyone else. The atmosphere in the busy coffeehouse was suddenly crystalline; pure and perfect.
“Meeting you changed things for me, too,” she said, lowering her voice because of the people at the nearby tables. “I love you, Julius.”
“I know this is all new for both of us and that we should give ourselves some time. But I don’t want to waste any more time.” He tightened his grip on her hand. “Will you marry me? Make a home with me? Make a family with me?”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes. And yes.”
Julius got up and pulled her to her feet. He looked at the baristas and the customers.
“She just said yes,” he announced.
Applause broke out.
Grace flushed. She knew she was turning scarlet but she was also aware that she had never been happier in her life.
Julius kissed her, right there in front of the talented baristas and all the people who were drinking coffee and working on computers and phones.
The applause got louder.
Julius released her long enough to pick up her laptop. She grabbed her jacket and bag. The cheers followed them outside into the glittering, rain-polished afternoon. The sidewalks were crowded, as they always were in Seattle when the sun came out to play. Sunglasses were everywhere, appearing as if by magic.
“Got an affirmation for this moment?” Julius asked.
“The one you came up with works for me,” Grace said. “Love changes everything.”