In His Father's Footsteps

by Danielle Steel

  They passed a small lake on the property on the way to the house. The gates at the entrance were impressive, and the driveway seemed endless. There were trucks and workmen in front of the house when they arrived. They’d started work on it the previous week, and Max had said there was a fair amount to do in the house, and they were also redoing all the landscaping, which Julie had hated, and putting in a pool. They would be lucky if it only took six months, but he hoped they would at least be able to move in by the summer, and they could finish the outside work by the end of the year.

  After they parked behind three vans that belonged to the electrician and the contractor’s Mercedes, Emmanuelle stood looking at the house in wonder when they got out of the car. The estate had belonged to a famous architect who had designed the house for himself, but Julie thought it was too old-fashioned and dark and depressing. They were putting floor-to-ceiling windows in almost every room and changing everything. But it was the size of the house itself that stunned Emmanuelle. It was huge. She had no idea Max had bought a home like that, he had only closed on it weeks before the wedding so they hadn’t had time to talk about it in depth. The architect who had owned it had died recently at the age of ninety-seven, and the family had been eager to sell.

  “It must have cost a fortune,” she whispered to Jakob as they made their way to the front steps, and he smiled at her.

  “He can afford it,” he reminded her.

  “But it’s so much to maintain.” Emmanuelle was well aware that it would take an army just to clean it.

  “They’re young, they’ll manage, and they want kids.” Jakob was always willing to look at the bright side, and make excuses for those he loved, but it seemed awfully big to him too.

  Max and Julie were standing on the top step with the contractor and an architect who had blueprints in his hands, and Julie was looking upset about something. Max shook hands with both men and the meeting ended, just as he saw his parents coming up the stairs. He came halfway down the steps to greet them.

  “Welcome to The Orchards,” which was the name of the estate. He smiled broadly, and Julie disappeared for a minute, and then returned looking petulant.

  “This is quite a place,” his father complimented him. It was after all an accomplishment to be able to buy a home that size. At his age, they had still been struggling, although Izzie had died a few months later, and everything had changed. But Max had made it all himself, which was a huge achievement.

  “The house is so big,” Emmanuelle said as they walked inside, and she saw the twenty-foot ceilings, and Max put an arm around his wife’s shoulders.

  “Julie is upset because they don’t want to put a skylight where she wants it. We’ve been arguing with the contractor about it all day. We told him he has to find a solution.” Julie launched into an explanation then about what they were going to put where, what furniture, what rugs, what light fixtures. They were putting in an elevator, and they were going to do the living room in pastel colors like a summer garden. They were going to plant rose gardens all around the house, for an indoor/outdoor effect. Emmanuelle glanced at her son then as they walked around, wondering what he thought of it, but he looked happy, and he had given Julie carte blanche to do whatever she wanted. She sounded like a little girl decorating a dollhouse, not a woman whose husband had just bought her what had to be a ten-million-dollar home on a vast estate. Emmanuelle was speechless. Then they walked upstairs and Julie showed them bedroom after bedroom. Emmanuelle counted eight of them.

  “What are you going to do with all these bedrooms?” Emmanuelle asked in amazement as Max put an arm around his wife and smiled at his parents.

  “We’re going to fill them with our children. We want lots of babies,” he said confidently, as Julie pointed to the master bedroom and showed her mother-in-law where she was going to put her closets, which were going to be almost the size of her parents-in-laws’ whole apartment in New York. Emmanuelle noticed that Julie had made no comment about all the children Max said they were going to have. She was more excited about her walk-in shoe closets.

  “That’s a lot of children,” she said to her son. One had been enough for her, but Max had all the faith in the goodness of life that came from growing up in a safe country and a peaceful world with loving parents. “We want five or six kids,” he informed his parents, and Jakob nodded. If they could afford it, so much the better. He had wanted more himself, even with their restricted means, and would have made it work but had never been able to convince Emmanuelle. He wasn’t sure she would have agreed to have children at all, if Max hadn’t been a fortuitous accident.

  “Do you want that many too?” Emmanuelle asked Julie directly, and she nodded, and then showed them the pink marble bathroom they were keeping in its original state. It looked like it belonged in a palace, and was worthy of a queen. But Julie was a princess to Max, and he treated her like one. She was wearing jeans and sneakers, as she ran around the second floor, showing them bedrooms and bathrooms, dressing rooms, a study for Max, the view into the garden, and the extensive apple orchards beyond that the house was named for. There were five gardeners to maintain them and the manicured gardens around the house, Max said proudly. Upstairs on the third floor, there were additional smaller bedrooms for the staff, and two huge guest suites.

  “You can stay here with us whenever you want,” Max told them generously, and they knew he meant it.

  “And we’re just six miles from my parents,” Julie said happily. She reminded Emmanuelle again of a little girl who was playing house, not a grown woman planning to make a home for her husband and bear many children. But Max seemed to love the childish quality about her. He knew that she could be a femme fatale in the bedroom. She was the sexiest woman he’d ever been with, and also a young ingénue whom he could direct as he wanted. She was willing to take all guidance from him, and if he wanted six children, that seemed fine to her too. Emmanuelle couldn’t help thinking that they had no idea what they were getting into, but they’d have to figure it out along the way.

  Max had stepped into a far bigger world than his parents, and was comfortable with it. He was a very successful man, and their home was a symbol of it. So was his wife. She looked at the ring on her mother-in-law’s hand, and said she hoped that Max would give her one like that someday, and not for their twentieth anniversary. Julie wasn’t afraid to show off her husband’s wealth, nor her father’s. The size and number of closets she wanted were ample proof of that. There was going to be an entire wall of cedar closets for her furs, and a huge built-in safe for her jewels.

  They spent an hour walking around the house and the grounds, and Emmanuelle and Jakob hugged him and congratulated him before they left and drove back to the city. Max and Julie were meeting friends at a restaurant in Greenwich, and staying at her parents’ home that night, and meeting with another landscaper at The Orchards the next morning. It was an enormous project.

  Emmanuelle was silent for the first few minutes after they got in the car, and they were already through the main gates when she turned to Jakob.

  “Our son is crazy. What is he going to do with that house and all those bedrooms? I don’t even want to know what it cost him, and what it’s going to cost him now while they pull the place apart and redesign it. What’s wrong with it the way it is? It’s a gorgeous house. And he’s letting her have whatever she wants.” His mother clearly didn’t approve of that and thought her daughter-in-law needed to be reined in. She was like a child out of control who could eat all the candy in sight and was determined to do so.

  “He loves her,” Jakob said simply. “He wants her to be happy.”

  “That’s not happiness, it’s greed. It’s not even good for her to be so indulged. She’ll turn into a monster.”

  “No, but a very spoiled woman,” he agreed. “Her father got her off to a good start on that,” he said, remembering the wedding.

&nbs
p; “Is that what you did with me? Let me do whatever I wanted so I’d be happy?” she asked, looking at Jakob curiously, as they reached the highway.

  “You were only happy if we didn’t spend money,” he said, teasing her, but there was truth in it, and they both laughed.

  “I can’t understand anyone their age or at any age, having a house like that, or wanting the responsibility of it. It’s going to be such a burden for them. And they’ll need an army of people to staff it,” Emmanuelle commented reasonably.

  “It’s not a problem for her,” Jakob said realistically. “Max has all the responsibility, she has all the fun,” and he wasn’t crazy about that either, but he didn’t think the situation was as disastrous as his wife did. He thought Julie would mature in time, hopefully before too long, if they were serious about having many children. But for now, she wanted to play and have fun all the time, and made no attempt to hide it.

  “Maybe he bought that house so she doesn’t complain when he’s away so much of the time,” Emmanuelle said pensively. “The house and the kids will keep her busy.”

  “If she spends time with them,” Jakob said wisely. He was just as uneasy as his wife about what Julie intended to do, and what kind of partner she would prove to be for their son. But there was nothing they could do about it. The deed was done. No one wanted their advice, and Max hadn’t asked for it. It wasn’t in his nature. He wanted their unconditional approval, not their suggestions about his life, which seemed normal even to them. He was a grown man, and had done brilliantly so far. They had no right to complain about anything he had done. He had always been a good son to them. And all they could do now was hope Julie would grow up quickly.

  * * *

  —

  Three weeks later, his parents were planning their next trip, a cruise to South America, when Max called them with the news. Julie was six weeks pregnant. She had gotten pregnant on their honeymoon, maybe even the first night. The baby was due in late September. He said he wanted them to be the first to know. His mother congratulated him, and tried to make it sound as though she meant it. She was happy for him, but worried too. Julie didn’t seem ready for motherhood, but maybe one never was until the baby got there. She was thinking about it seriously and trying to absorb the news when Jakob walked into the room and saw her.

  “Something wrong?” He looked instantly concerned when he saw how pensive she was as she looked at him.

  “She’s pregnant.”

  “So, real life begins,” he said. “How does Max feel about it?”

  “He’s delighted, thrilled, over the moon.”

  Jakob smiled then, remembering. “So was I, when you were pregnant. I was terrified, but I was thrilled too. I was so afraid something would happen to you or the baby. We were such innocents,” he said and came to kiss her.

  “I was so shocked by how hard the delivery was. No one ever told me,” she said, remembering it still vividly. “I hope the baby will be all right, and Julie will turn out to be a better mother than I fear,” she said simply.

  “We didn’t know anything about it either,” Jakob reminded her. “No one does with a first child.”

  “No, but they have relatives to tell them. We were totally on our own.” He nodded and then smiled at her.

  “You don’t look like a grandmother to me. You’re much too young and sexy to be anyone’s grandmother,” he said and kissed her again, and let his hands rove over her body, and she laughed like a young girl.

  “You’re very badly behaved for a grandfather. Aren’t you supposed to be dignified now?”

  “I hope not. Maybe it will be nice to have a grandchild,” he said as he led her slowly toward their bedroom. She was smiling as she followed him onto their bed, and they forgot about Max and his family, and for a time thought only of each other and the love they shared.

  * * *

  —

  Julie was fortunate and felt well through her entire pregnancy. She met with the decorator daily, making plans and choosing furniture and fabrics. Max had set up an account so she could buy whatever she wanted for the house, and she stayed in Greenwich with her parents when he was out of town, working all over the country, looking at land to buy. He bought two oil wells in Houston with the profits from one of his biggest sales in Oklahoma. He never talked to Julie about business, just about the house. She wasn’t interested in his work, and had never pretended to be, just in him.

  During the summer, all her friends gave her baby showers with adorable little outfits and toys. They had decided not to find out the sex of the baby. Max wanted a boy, but he said it didn’t matter since they wanted five more children anyway, and if they missed the first time, the second one would be a boy. Julie said she wanted whatever made him happy. He was ecstatic whenever he came home to her after a trip, and he loved watching their baby grow inside her. He thought she was even more beautiful than before. She looked remarkable, and was full of energy, and still playing tennis in July.

  They moved into their new home after the July Fourth weekend. There was more work to be done, mostly outdoors. The house itself was nearly complete, and the master suite and nursery were ready. Her incredible dressing room, with motorized racks so she could view anything she wanted, was ready too. She loved showing the house off to her friends. They were planning a huge housewarming party as soon as the baby was born in September. Julie wanted to wear something fabulous, and not be pregnant at their party, so they’d waited.

  The baby nurse they’d hired arrived on September first, three weeks early, to get everything set up the way she wanted it. The relief nanny who would take care of the baby on weekends came a week later, and the two women sat in the nursery, talking for hours in their starched white uniforms. They were both English, and another nanny was arriving in December when the baby nurse left. Julie said she wanted one of them on hand at all times, so she would be completely free and at her husband’s disposal whenever he was home. She didn’t want him returning from a trip and having to wait while she took care of a crying baby. She was first a wife and then a mother. Max liked the idea. He didn’t want to play second fiddle to a baby.

  “Did you ever feel like that?” Emmanuelle asked Jakob after Julie explained it to them, and they pretended to agree with her.

  “Of course not, we took care of him together. I changed diapers better than you did,” he teased her. They’d had no problem managing one baby between the two of them, and Max had been an easy baby. “But they have a much bigger life than we did,” he said fairly. “I didn’t travel for business the way Max does. We were two adults and one baby in a tiny apartment. We had nothing to do except our jobs, and nowhere to go. We couldn’t even afford to go to dinner and a movie. Maybe Max really does want her free and entirely to himself when he comes home.”

  “I think it’s an excuse so she doesn’t have to deal with the baby. She wants to go to the city and see her sisters and friends.”

  “She’ll probably fall in love with the baby when she sees it,” Jakob said optimistically, “that’s what happened to us.” He smiled, remembering the sweetest time in their lives.

  “I want to come out and spend time with my grandchild too, and I don’t want those women interfering.” She thought the nannies Julie had hired looked stiff and cold, when she visited Julie in Greenwich one day, to see how she was. They were from a fancy agency and looked professional. The baby nurse even wore white stockings with her white uniform and a starched nurse’s cap.

  “It’s just a different world from ours,” Jakob said quietly, although there had been nannies in his old life too and he had been brought up by a very strict German one.

  Julie had also told them that she had decided not to nurse. That would interfere with her being free for her husband too. She didn’t want anything to come between them. And by Labor Day, she couldn’t wait for the baby to be born. There was a heat wave and she s
aid she was tired of lugging it around, and there was nothing she could do anymore except sit in the pool at her parents’ house. Max was still traveling, but he had promised to slow down a few days before her due date. He wanted to get all the meetings in that he could now, in case the baby came late. But Julie had been so active up to that point that the doctor didn’t think she’d be overdue. She was young and healthy, and he expected the delivery to be easy, and Max had promised to be there. He had said he’d take Lamaze classes with her so he could help her at the delivery, but he was never in town on the right days, so one of her sisters went with her. Julie said she was sure it wouldn’t work anyway, and she wanted drugs instead. And she had an exercise coach scheduled to start two weeks after the delivery. She wasn’t going to sacrifice her figure for the baby, and she’d been careful to gain very little weight.

  Two weeks before her due date, they moved to Max’s apartment in the city, so they could get to the hospital quickly. She didn’t want to have the baby in Greenwich, and had continued to see her obstetrician in town after they moved. She met her friends for lunch, and went shopping with her sisters. She had dinner with her parents at 21, and went to a party at Studio 54 a week before her due date and danced for an hour with assorted friends before she finally sat down. She had a few contractions afterward but nothing happened, and she told Max about it the next day, since he was out of town the night of the party and came home the day after.