Destiny Unleashed

by Sherryl Woods

  “That’s no secret,” he conceded.

  “Were you disappointed when he stayed and I arrived to serve as chairman of the division?”

  “A bit,” he admitted candidly. “But I’m young yet and I’m a patient man.”

  She was suddenly struck by an inspiration. “Do you know Malcolm Dandridge?”

  He stared at her blankly. “Who?”

  His reaction seemed totally genuine to Destiny. “Never mind. I thought perhaps you might have met, but it’s not important. Thank you, David.”

  He stood up and started for the door, then turned back. “Ms. Carlton, do you trust me?”

  She returned his gaze evenly. “You’ve given me no reason not to, have you?”

  “No,” he said emphatically. “I wanted to be sure, though. If my loyalty is in question, then it would be better if I left.”

  She understood his need for reassurance and made a snap decision. “I’d like you to stay, David. But if anything comes to mind about who might be behind this, please let me know.”

  “Of course.”

  After he’d gone, she waited a few minutes before calling for the head of marketing. She wondered if David would rush straight to the man’s office to warn him or leave Edward Wildemon to be taken by surprise.

  She had her answer when Edward appeared in the doorway of her office without her even picking up the phone.

  “I imagine you want to speak to me, as well,” he said, coming inside without waiting for an invitation.

  “David spoke to you?”

  He nodded. “But I’ve been expecting this for some time.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s obvious that there’s been a serious leak in the company and it’s most likely someone at the top.”

  “True enough,” Destiny agreed. “Any ideas?”

  “I know you’ve concluded that Chester is beyond reproach, but I think your faith in him might be misplaced.”

  “You think that or you know it?”

  “Who knows what he confides to his companion,” he said with obvious distaste.

  Destiny bristled on Chester’s behalf. She didn’t like prejudices of any kind. “Do you suppose he says any more to Oliver Diggs than you do to your wife?”

  Edward blinked at that. He was savvy enough to interpret the disapproval in her tone. “No, I suppose not.”

  “Then I think we can eliminate that as a reason to suspect Chester,” she said decisively. “Anything else?”

  He leaned forward, his expression earnest. “Look at how the man dresses. He can’t buy clothes like that on his income. He must have some other source. And I’ll wager those suits of his are from Harcourt’s haberdasheries. A quid pro quo, perhaps.”

  Destiny was liking Edward Wildemon less and less. “Suspicion, not fact,” she chided. “I need facts, Edward. Perhaps we should concentrate on you for a moment, since that’s the one topic about which you can speak authoritatively.”

  He blushed furiously.

  “Do you resent the fact that Richard chose to keep Chester on?”

  His chin jutted up stubbornly. “I thought it was a mistake, yes.”

  “Then you thought you should have that position?”

  “Yes,” he said, then quickly added, “or perhaps David. He has the financial background to make a go of things.”

  “Yes, I’m sure he does,” Destiny admitted. “And what would your qualifications be, should there be a change down the road?”

  “I know how to sell this company, how to get it recognized as a leader in Europe. We’ve been far too cautious in our approach up to now.”

  “A vitally important task,” Destiny agreed. “But do you have any management experience outside of marketing?”

  “No,” he conceded.

  “Then wouldn’t it be asking quite a lot for Richard to put you in charge?”

  “No more than having him put you in charge,” he retorted, then blanched at his lack of discretion. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  Destiny bit back a sharp retort and managed to keep her tone perfectly even. “I appreciate your candor, Edward. That will be all for now.”

  As he headed for the door, she said, “By the way, that suit you’re wearing, isn’t it custom-tailored?”

  He stared at her, his expression vaguely stunned. “Yes, but—”

  Destiny cut him off. “No need to explain. You can see, though, how jumping to conclusions cuts both ways.”

  “It won’t happen again.”

  “See that it doesn’t.”

  After he’d gone, Destiny muttered the soft curse she’d been holding back during the entire encounter. She believed with everything in her that Edward Wildemon was the culprit, but as she’d so firmly told him, she needed proof, not suspicions. How the devil was she supposed to get that?

  When inspiration struck, she grabbed her coat and headed for the door.

  “Where are you going?” Miriam called after her.

  “To see William.”

  Miriam regarded her with undisguised dismay. “Do you have an appointment? It’s not on your calendar.”

  “No appointment.”

  “Should I call and make sure he’s in his office?”

  “No need. I want the element of surprise on my side.”

  “I’m sure Mr. Dandridge would be discreet,” Miriam said. “It seems to be his nature.”

  Destiny regarded her with surprise. “You know Mr. Dandridge?”

  “We’ve spoken once or twice,” she said, blushing. “He’s very charming on the phone.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Destiny said. “But let’s not involve him in this. If William’s not in his office, I’ll track him down.” In fact, if he wasn’t there, it would make her day. It would give her a chance to meet the incomparable Malcolm Dandridge and see for herself how far he might go to assist his boss.

  19

  William heard a commotion outside his office. If he wasn’t mistaken, Destiny was right in the thick of it. He nearly knocked over his chair in his haste to intervene.

  In the foyer he found Malcolm, arms folded across his chest, blocking Destiny’s path. His forbidding expression would have daunted a lesser person, but as William knew all too well, there was nothing timid about Destiny when she was on a mission, and clearly some unpleasantness had brought her charging over here this morning.

  “What’s going on?” he inquired politely, taking both of the combatants by surprise.

  Destiny whirled on him. “Your bodyguard says I can’t see you without an appointment.”

  William bit back a grin. “Those are his instructions,” he explained mildly.

  “Well, there must be exceptions,” she said. “Are you suggesting that I need to go away, call and then come back?”

  “No, I think now that you’re here, we can make an exception for you,” William said. “It’s okay, Malcolm. Ms. Carlton will always be an exception to any rules we have around here.”

  “As you wish, sir,” his assistant said, his spine stiff with disapproval. Clearly, he’d not come to terms with William’s involvement with Destiny any more than Chester Sandhurst had.

  “I think perhaps Malcolm should sit in on this meeting,” Destiny said.

  William frowned at her. “Then this is a business call?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He was beginning to regret breaking the rules quite so quickly. “Then by all means, Malcolm, please join us.”

  “I’d rather not, sir. I have things to do.”

  “They can wait,” William told him firmly.

  Malcolm dutifully, if reluctantly, followed them into William’s office. He perched on the edge of a chair as if he might bolt at any second. He continued to regard Destiny as if she were a coiled serpent.

  “I’ve had a chat with some of my executives this morning,” Destiny began, her gaze not on William, but on Malcolm. “It’s proved rather interesting.”

  “Oh?” William said. “Sleuthing, were y
ou? I thought you’d intended to leave that to a professional or at least to Sandhurst.”

  “Yes, well, things change, as you well know. I’ve discovered it’s sometimes necessary to be a bit flexible in business.”

  “True enough,” William agreed. “So, what did you discover?”

  “Interestingly enough, Malcolm’s name came up.”

  Malcolm had been staring past Destiny until that moment, but his head snapped around. “I beg your pardon. In what context did my name come up at Carlton Industries?”

  “Actually, my assistant has told me she finds you quite charming on the phone. It’s the accent, I’m sure,” Destiny said, as if she could find no other plausible explanation for such an analysis.

  “Very kind of her,” Malcolm said, looking vaguely embarrassed.

  “Perhaps too kind, since I’m beginning to suspect you were the go-between speaking to one of my executives on behalf of Harcourt & Sons,” Destiny said without the slightest hesitation. Her gaze never wavered. “Is that possible?”

  Malcolm remained stoically silent. William could see that his assistant wouldn’t say a word to give himself or William away, but William had lost patience with the entire game. Destiny already knew he’d been the beneficiary of inside information. There was little point in denying that Malcolm had had a hand in providing it. William would take full responsibility and handle whatever repercussions there might be. Besides, he was all but certain that Destiny merely hoped to get to the bottom of things, not to press charges of corporate espionage.

  “Malcolm is my most trusted employee,” William told her. “He does hear things from time to time that can benefit this company. As I told you last night, he has sources everywhere.”

  Malcolm stared at him. “You said that, sir? Why would you reveal such a thing?”

  “Actually, it was in the context of singing your praises for acquiring those theater seats and dinner reservations,” William told him. “But you also need to understand that Ms. Carlton and I are no longer engaged in any kind of subterfuge, Malcolm. I want her to be clear that anything you do, you do at my behest.”

  “Including buying information from Carlton insiders?” Destiny inquired.

  “I’ve never paid anyone so much as a dime for information,” Malcolm said indignantly.

  Destiny waved off his claim. “To be honest, I don’t give two bits what you do or don’t do. You’re William’s concern, not mine. But I do need to know which of my employees is not to be trusted.”

  Malcolm’s complexion turned pale. “I can’t say, ma’am.”

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Won’t, if you’re putting that fine a distinction on it.”

  “David Perkins claims he doesn’t know you,” Destiny said.

  William was watching her intently, trying to figure out her game. Her gaze never left Malcolm’s face.

  “I don’t recognize the name,” Malcolm said without the faintest hesitation.

  “That helps me eliminate one possibility, then,” she said. “Of course, I imagine you’re acquainted with Chester Sandhurst.”

  “By reputation only,” Malcolm said calmly.

  William was beginning to catch on. Destiny was going to throw out the names of those she didn’t suspect to see if anything in Malcolm’s demeanor changed when she finally mentioned the person she thought responsible for the leaks.

  Destiny frowned a bit. “So Chester is off the hook,” she said, her expression thoughtful. “Just as well. I was certain it was Edward Wildemon, anyway.”

  “Oh?” Malcolm said.

  William saw a flicker of satisfaction register in Destiny’s eyes and wondered what she’d heard in Malcolm’s voice that he’d missed. Obviously she felt she’d confirmed her suspicions without Malcolm having to admit to a thing.

  “Destiny, is that the last of your questions for Malcolm?” William asked, anxious to get to the bottom of what had sent her flying over here. Something must have happened at Carlton Industries this morning to trigger this interrogation.

  “I believe so. Thank you very much, Mr. Dandridge.”

  “Yes, madam.”

  William gave the man’s shoulder a squeeze as he passed. “It’s okay, Malcolm.”

  “Oh, Mr. Dandridge,” Destiny called after him.

  “Yes.”

  “Please do not call Edward and warn him.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it, ma’am.”

  Once they were alone again, William met Destiny’s gaze. “So, you think you have your spy?”

  “And the man who planted that photograph,” she said.

  “Enough to convict him in court?”

  “Probably not,” she admitted. “But enough to see to it that he’s never in a position to betray the company or me again.”

  “You’ll fire him?”

  “And have him sue us for wrongful termination and bloody our name in the press for months to come?” she asked. “No. I’ll just deny him access to sensitive information from here on out. Eventually he’ll get the message that his ambitions will never be fulfilled at Carlton Industries and he’ll move on.”

  She met his gaze. “I’m sorry I came here without warning and put Malcolm on the spot. I couldn’t see another way to go about it.”

  “You didn’t feel you could take me into your confidence?” Her silence was answer enough. “Will we ever get past this, Destiny?”

  She gave him a sad look. “I want to.”

  “But the doubts keep nagging at you, don’t they?”

  “The doubts and Richard’s reaction and the entire complicated mess that’s been created.”

  “By me,” William said.

  “Not just you,” she insisted. “I had a share in it, too.”

  “You?”

  “Yes, years ago, if I’d been honest and insisted on sending you back to your family, perhaps it would have been best. Instead, I waited for the perfect excuse to come along, then ran myself. It left us both with too many unanswered questions.”

  He wasn’t sure he understood her convoluted logic. “You’ll have to explain that.”

  “I felt this incredible guilt over keeping you from your family. When my family needed me, it seemed like the perfect time to sever all ties. I don’t think I consciously intended to use the tragedy that way, but it kept me from having to fight with you over it, especially when a very big part of me wanted so badly for us to go on just as we had been. I was afraid I’d never stand up to your persuasiveness, so I simply left.”

  She gave him a sad look. “When you told me recently that you would have come to me, if only I’d asked, I believed you. I think I always knew that. I think it’s why I didn’t ask, because a part of me believed you needed to be with your own family and that, until you’d made your peace with them, you and I could never be truly happy.”

  William’s head was spinning. “You deliberately shut me out because you wanted me to come back to London?”

  Destiny nodded. “And I was right. You came back here and took your rightful place in the family company. You made peace with your father.”

  “And it cost me the only woman I’ve ever loved,” he said, unable to keep a trace of bitterness from his voice. “Who said you were the one who got to choose for me, Destiny?”

  “I knew you could never make that choice for yourself,” she said.

  “Because it was the wrong choice,” he told her emphatically. “There were other solutions.”

  “How can you say that? It was the only choice.”

  “Perhaps it wasn’t wrong for you,” he said then. “But it was for me and you had no right to make it.”

  “I made it because I loved you enough to let you go,” she insisted.

  He stared at her, still not comprehending how she could have ripped them apart without once discussing it with him. Maybe she and her nephew were too much alike, after all. Making unilateral decisions seemed to be at least one trait they had in common.

  “I think you should g
o,” he said quietly.

  She stared at him, looking miserable. “William, please, don’t be furious with me. I acted without thinking it through. In fact, I was so grief-stricken at the time I was barely thinking at all.”

  “I’m not furious,” he said. “In fact, I’m having a very difficult time feeling anything at all.”

  Well, she’d certainly made a muddle of that, Destiny thought as she stood on the sidewalk in front of the Harcourt & Sons headquarters, shivering in the icy wind. Why hadn’t she been able to make William see that she’d done what she’d done out of love and out of respect for his family? Besides, it had all happened so long ago. Surely they could leave it in the past and move on.

  “Ms. Carlton?”

  She looked up to see Malcolm Dandridge studying her with a concerned expression.

  “Are you all right, ma’am?”

  “I’m fine,” she said wearily.

  “I could give you a lift back to your office,” he offered. “I don’t think Mr. Harcourt would want you standing out here in the cold trying to find a taxi.”

  “I was going to walk,” she said. “I need to clear my head.”

  “Then I’ll walk with you,” he said decisively.

  “There’s no need,” she began, but let the protest die when it became evident that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. It was obvious his loyalty to William outweighed any antagonism he felt toward her. “Very well.”

  At least the man knew when to keep his own counsel, she concluded when he remained silent as they walked briskly through the midday crowd. She finally lifted her gaze and looked into his eyes. “Do you think he’ll forgive me?”

  Malcolm seemed startled by the question. “Why would he need to forgive you?”

  “I made a very bad decision a long time ago,” she explained. “I’ve just admitted it to him. He’s not very happy with me at the moment.”

  Malcolm smiled and it softened his harsh features. “I don’t think there’s any question of him forgiving you, ma’am. He loves you.”

  “You believe that?” she asked, clinging to the lifeline he was tossing out. After all, it was evident that few people were closer to William than this man. In some ways, the bond between them seemed stronger than the ties William had felt toward his father.