You see, I didn’t want him to think there was any problem within the family.”
“Quite right, too. The sultan wasn’t insulted, was he? These chaps easily take offense, you know, especially if they think they’re being slighted.”
“No, no, he believed me. Why wouldn’t he? And I told him I was now available again, and whenever he needed me. I gave him my private number in New York, and I told Gareth James to call me there if I wasn’t at the London store.”
“That was a wise move.”
“You don’t have to worry, Bruce; the sultan understands. I think mostly he was terribly baffled, and whilst not slighted, perhaps he was a bit hurt.”
“I’m relieved you’ve cleared it up, Stevie. When are you going to deal with Nigel?”
“I told you I would talk to him after the holidays, and since it’s now the third of January, I’ll have a word with him today. I have to, because I’m leaving for New York on Monday morning.”
“I’m glad you’re not wasting any time.” Bruce rose. “I’ve got to go, I’m afraid. I have an appoint-274 / Barbara Taylor Bradford
ment with my nutritionist.” He paused at the door.
“I wish you luck with Nigel, and don’t be too soft with him, Stevie; he deserves to be on the mat for this. If he’s difficult, unrepentant, do what you have to do.”
Stevie got up, went around the desk, and embraced her father-in-law. “I’ll phone you later.”
Once she was alone, Stevie sat thinking for a short while, then finally coming to a decision, she picked up the phone and dialed Nigel’s private extension.
“Hello? Nigel Jardine here,” he said in his usual clipped, upper-class tone.
“Nigel, could you come to see me for a moment, please?”
“No, I can’t. I’m very busy, Mother. Whatever you want to see me about will have to wait.”
“It can’t, I’m afraid. In any case, I think the Sultan of Kandrea is an important enough client for you to stop what it is you’re doing and come in here. At once. We’ve rather a lot to talk about.”
“Oh, all right,” he mumbled, and banged the phone down.
Within the space of a few seconds he was barging into her office. From the doorway he asked, “What
about
the sultan?” His stance was angry and he glared at her, then he pushed the door closed with his foot.
It struck Stevie that his insouciant mood of a few days ago had completely vanished. She said slowly,
“I just wanted you to know that I sold the Power of a Woman / 275
sultan the yellow diamond necklace, with the matching earrings, bracelet, and ring.”
“The set Peter designed and Gideon made?” he asked, looking slightly taken aback.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“The sultan’s in London?” His brows drew together in a frown.
“Oh, yes, Nigel, he is. And he sent me a hand-written note, inviting me to have coffee with him.
You see, he was somewhat baffled at my behavior.
He couldn’t understand why I no longer wished to handle his business, after all these years of doing so, of being his personal consultant on stones.”
Stevie leaned back in her chair, and she did not take her eyes off her son.
Despite his arrogance and bravado, Nigel found himself flushing under her fixed scrutiny, and this mortified him. He loathed the idea that he had to answer to anyone, and most especially to her. He remained silent, for once in his life at a loss.
“Don’t you have
anything
to say to me?” Stevie demanded softly, all of her attention focused on him.
“No, I don’t, Mother.”
“How
amazing
that you don’t. After all, you’re the one who created the situation with the sultan by telling Gareth James you were now handling my clients.”
276 / Barbara Taylor Bradford
“You weren’t in London when Gareth James phoned to set up an appointment,” he snapped at her. “I was only trying to help.”
“A very lame excuse!” she shot back icily, her anger rising to the surface. “It just so happens that I know what you’ve been doing, Nigel. You’ve been courting my personal clients in an effort to take them over yourself. But it won’t work. As long as I’m head of this company,
I
will handle all of our top customers.”
When he made no response, she said, “Do you understand me?”
“Yes.”
“There’s another thing. I think you owe me an apology.”
“For what?” he asked in an insolent tone.
“For lying to me.”
“I’ve never lied to you!”
“Oh, yes, you have. You did so in New York. On December the tenth, to be exact, when you told me that Bruce had told
you
that I’d paid too much for the White Empress.”
“You did.”
“Maybe you mistakenly think so, but Bruce doesn’t. Nor did he ever say to you that I had
always
paid too much for diamonds. That was pure invention on your part, and your grandfather is as angry about this as I am.”
“Oh, who cares what he thinks? You said yourself he’s retired now.”
“I care what he thinks, and so should you. You Power of a Woman / 277
haven’t taken over from me yet, and as long as I’m here, you’ll respect Bruce. He’s still chairman.”
“In name only,” he sneered.
Ignoring this, she said, “Why did you lie, Nigel?
You must have known you’d be found out.”
“It wasn’t a lie. Bruce might not have said it
exactly
, but he implied it. He’s very forgetful now; he doesn’t remember a thing from one day to the next,”
Nigel lied. “Anyway, it’s true, you did overpay. You always overpay. You’ve no judgment.” He walked farther into the room, drew closer to her desk, stood glowering at her.
How unpleasant he can be, and he’s such a lovely-looking young man, she thought, gazing up at him, filled with sadness and regret. She knew now that he was indeed her enemy; he had just declared open warfare.
Quietly, Stevie said, “I don’t like your tone of voice, Nigel, and you will not speak to me in this way. Furthermore, I don’t appreciate your arrogant attitude either. Quite aside from being your mother, and therefore due some respect from you, I’m also your boss. Let’s not forget that. You’d better adopt a different manner and tone immediately.”
“The whole point is, you shouldn’t be my boss!”
he cried, suddenly losing all sense of caution. “
I
should be running this company, not
you
. By rights it’s mine. Firstly you’re a woman, and secondly you’re not even a Jardine. This company has always been run by Jardines.”
278 / Barbara Taylor Bradford
His last statement brought her to her feet. “I
am
a Jardine, and don’t you dare say otherwise! I’ve been a Jardine for over thirty years, since the day I married your father. Don’t you
ever
forget that, Nigel.”
“I meant you’re not a Jardine by blood,” he cried,
“and you know that’s what I meant.” He flushed, fighting a losing battle with his growing rage. “I hear you’re leaving for the States on Monday. Stay there and do yourself and everyone else a favor. You’re not wanted or needed here. And I’m perfectly capable of running Jardine’s.”
“No, you’re not. Furthermore, you’re not even going to get a chance to run it. You’re fired.”
Thunderstruck, he gaped at her. “You can’t fire me!” he shouted.
“Oh, but I can. And I shall repeat it. You’re fired.”
He drew himself up to his full height and said in a cold, superior voice, “I’m a director of this company. Or had you forgotten that, Mother?”
“No, I hadn’t, and you will remain a director. I can’t take that away from you. However, I can fire you. And I just have.”
“I’m going to see Grandfather about this,” he spluttered, his face turning bright red. “He won’t stand for this; he’ll reinstate me.”
“No, he won’t, Nigel; you’re quite wrong about that. Very frankly, I doubt that he’d want to, even if he could. And actually he can’t. You see, as managing director of Jardine’s, I have the last word.”
Power of a Woman / 279
“We’ll see about that,” he blustered.
“Hear me, Nigel.
You are fired
. Please vacate your office by the end of the day.”
He stood looking at her stupidly for a split second, hating her more than ever, and then he shouted,
“You’re going to live to regret this!” And so saying, he stomped out.
Alone, Stevie poured herself a glass of water; her hand shook uncontrollably, and this annoyed her.
She endeavored to calm herself, but it took her almost an hour to do so. Finally, just when she was settling down to do some work, there was a knock on the door.
As she glanced up and said “Come in,” the door opened to admit Miles. Hovering on the threshold, he said, “Hello, Ma, am I intruding? Do you have a couple of minutes to spare?”
“Yes, darling,” she said, smiling at him in relief, discovering that she was rather happy to see her favorite son. “Come in and shut the door. Do you want a cup of tea or anything?”
He shook his head and came into the room after closing the door carefully behind him. “I came in to see Gid, and I couldn’t leave the store without popping by.” Seating himself in the chair at the other side of her desk, he peered at her intently, and then said, “You look as white as a sheet. Are you all right?”
She nodded, for a moment unable to explain.
280 / Barbara Taylor Bradford
Finally, taking a deep breath, she said, “I fired Nigel.”
“Good God! When?”
“An hour ago.”
“Why?” He suddenly laughed. “Do I need to ask!”
Stevie took another deep breath, slowly explained what happened, told him everything, not leaving out any details. When she had finished, she shook her head sadly. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, but there was nothing else I could do. He was so terribly rude to me, on top of everything else. He said I had no right to be running Jardine’s because I was a woman, and also because I was not a Jardine.”
“What a bloody nerve he’s got, Ma. Talk about an ingrate, and after all you’ve done for him over the years. I’m glad you fired him; he deserves it.
He’s a bigger fool than I thought.” Miles held her eyes for a moment. “Imagine how stupid it was of him to go courting
your
customers. They all want to deal with you, because you’re the head of Jardine’s. They view Nigel as a junior, your
under-ling
, albeit the heir apparent. Imagine if they’d taken offense, thought you were palming them off on Nigel. They’d be taking their millions elsewhere, like Cartier’s, for instance. That would please Old Bruce no end, now wouldn’t it?”
She half smiled. “Nigel certainly jeopardized an important area of our business, no two ways about that.” She shook her head. “Anyway, that’s Power of a Woman / 281
that. Let’s move on…. Why did you come in to see Gideon?”
“I owed him some money.” He laughed wryly.
“For your earrings.”
“You were both very extravagant. And you didn’t have to buy me something so expensive, you know.”
“We wanted to, Ma, and they came with a lot of love from us both. Gideon did spend a lot of time on the design of them with Peter. He wanted them to be perfect for you, and so did I.” Stretching out his long legs, Miles went on. “Miss Chloe’s all sweetness and light, and very happy today. She says you’re letting her come to London for the Easter break, after all.”
“It seemed rather mean not to, she wanted it so much.”
“What about you? Will you be spending Easter here?”
“I don’t think so, Miles. But she’ll be all right; she can stay with my mother and Derek.”
“I’m planning to come over around that time, so I’ll bring her with me.”
“Oh, Miles, that’s wonderful; you’ll be company for each other on the plane.”
He nodded. “Gideon tells me he’s confided in you…about Lenore.”
“Yes. To tell you the truth, I was only startled for about half a minute. I always expected them to marry, you know.”
“But without her having to drag herself through 282 / Barbara Taylor Bradford
the divorce courts, right?” Miles grinned at her.
“They really must love each other a hell of a lot. I wouldn’t want to tackle that tough old bugger Malcolm Armstrong.”
“He is tough, Miles, and I gather you don’t like him any more than I do.”
“I can’t stand him, Mother. He’s a phony. I’m actually surprised he’s not come a cropper before now. He’s another one, just like Julian Saunders, Margot’s brother, always skating on thin ice in the City.”
“Really,” she exclaimed, sounding surprised. “I didn’t know. But he was always sneaky even when he was younger.”
“I don’t know what Lenore ever saw in him,” Miles muttered.
“Do you think Gideon and Lenore are going to make it work? The presumption being that they will marry once she is free.”
“They will, Ma. You know they’ve always loved each other, and I for one never understood why she married Armstrong in the first place. After all, she’d had a crush on Gideon for years.”
“What do you mean?” Stevie asked, raising a brow.
“Well, Gideon was about eleven, so she was thirteen. For all I know, it may have started even earlier.
They were always messing around with each other, undressing each other when we played in the attics at Lindenhill. It began when Gid and I were about seven. They used to make me leave, Power of a Woman / 283
so they could be alone, to play doctors and nurses.”
“Miles, I never knew!”
“Well, I wasn’t going to come and tell you then, but there’s no harm you knowing now.” He couldn’t help chuckling. “Oh, Mother, if only you could see your face…you look so shocked.”
“But they were just children.”
“So they started their sex life when they were in kindergarten. What can I say?”
“Nothing.”
“Do you know something, Ma, I’ve been thinking a lot about Nigel lately, and I believe he really changed when he was a teenager. The time you had that awful blow-up with Alfreda, when he took her side. What a lousy desertion that was. Gid and I have never really forgiven him for that. Choosing the old battle-ax Grandmother Jardine over you.
Little sod, he was.”
“I know. But I forgave him long ago. I put it down to extreme youth.” Her private phone rang and she picked it up. “Hello?” As she pressed it to her ear, she went on, “Yes, Bruce, I did talk to him. And I had no alternative but to fire him.”