by Polly Carter
“No, Mum. I’m fine. Honestly. I don’t need or want you to do anything. I can manage. All I want is for you to get well and, as for the party, I’m sure I would have been a fish out of water anyway. It’s a bit of a relief I have an excuse not to go.”
She wasn’t actually lying; both those things were true, and she wanted to ease any guilt her mother was feeling about her and Pearl’s father being the reason their daughter was missing out on wearing a designer ball gown and attending a magnificently splendid party with the man she loved.
“If you say so, darling, but you do look quite peaky. Maybe you should take it easier today. We can have sandwiches or something so you don’t have so much cooking and washing up.”
“It’s fine, Mum,” Pearl said, getting up and clearing away the breakfast dishes. “I’m fine. Honestly. I’m going to do the floors today. I like having something to do to keep busy.”
And that’s exactly what she was doing mid-afternoon as the sun was heading toward the horizon, mopping the kitchen floor with her sleeves rolled up, when she glanced out of the window and saw a car arriving. Her brow wrinkled in puzzlement. It appeared to be a limousine, but what was a limousine doing in her drive? She stood her mop in the bucket and went outside to meet it as it stopped near the house. The doors opened and three people, two women and the male driver, none of whom Pearl had ever seen before, got out and walked towards her. The man held out a phone and gestured for her to hold it up to her ear.
“Hello?” she said into it, a puzzled frown wrinkling her brow.
“Hi, baby,” she heard Marcus’s voice say at the other end. “This is Dave, who’s a driver; Lisa, who’s a nurse; and Georgia, who’s a stylist. Georgia has a gown for you and is going to help you dress. Lisa is going to stay at the farm with your parents tonight. Dave is going to bring you and Georgia to the party, and then I’ll return you to the farm sometime tomorrow. Lisa has friends who live not far away that she’s going to stay with for a couple of days, so she doesn’t mind at all hanging about until we get there and then her friends will collect her from there. How does that sound?”
“What? No.” Pearl could barely take it in. “But Mum, Dad…”
“They don’t want you to miss the party, do they?”
“I guess not,” Pearl admitted. Her mother had already said as much.
“Let me talk to them,” Marcus insisted. Pearl had no option but to comply, and to leave the room at Marcus’s behest while he did so.
“Right,” he told her when her father called her in and handed her the phone. “It’s all settled. You are to do whatever Georgia tells you, and I will be waiting for you when you arrive. Lisa will stay with your parents till tomorrow, and she’ll call me if there’s anything you need to know. I have to get going, Mother’s calling, but I’ll see you tonight dressed up like a princess, baby girl. I can’t wait. I’ve missed you so much, and I don’t think I could stand this damn shindig without you by my side. We don’t have to stay long, then we can go to your place and spend the night together.”
It was two hours before the limousine set off on the return trip to the Holding mansion, and what a two hours it was. Before anything else happened, Georgia insisted Pearl try on the gown so she could see if any alterations were necessary and get started on them. She’d brought two big bags and a stool with her. As she opened one of the bags and took out the dress Marcus had organised, Pearl gasped. Figure-hugging but not revealing, it had everything she loved: champagne sequins and beads glittering like jewels in a pattern of vines trailing over white meshed lace. It sparkled and shimmered as Georgia held it up to the light and then helped her try it on in front of her bedroom mirror. She’d also brought a pair of low-heeled white shoes, which slipped on and fit perfectly.
“Oh my,” she murmured, turning this way and that to see herself from every angle. “I feel like a princess. Did you choose this dress?”
“You look like a princess, sweetie,” Georgia said kindly. “And you are certainly beautiful enough to be one. And, no, the dress had nothing to do with me. Marcus chose it. He just asked me to bring it to you and help you get ready. It’s a wee bit long. Hop up on the stool and I’ll quickly pin it up, then you can take it off and settle Lisa in while I sew it. Apart from the length it fits perfectly, but you’re such a tiny little thing… we don’t want you tripping over it, do we?”
So, while Georgia sewed the hem, Pearl found Lisa, who’d been introduced to Jack and Mary and was chatting with them, and showed her around the house and explained what needed doing and where she could find things. Then she showered, by which time Georgia had finished sewing and was ready to help her get dressed, and do her makeup and hair. Since meeting Marcus, she’d let her hair grow because she liked wearing it in pigtails or a ponytail, and it was nearly down to her shoulders. With her skilled hands, Georgia pinned it up into a low messy bun with wisps of hair escaping each side. Satisfied at last, she surveyed her work.
“Okay, check it out in the mirror, and see what you think.”
Standing in front of her reflection, Pearl could scarcely believe it was her. She felt like a little girl dressing up in adult clothes, but it was fun. She might be a princess, or model, or actress going to a party at the mansion of one of the wealthiest and most fashionable families in the city. It hardly seemed real.
“Thank you so much,” she said to Georgia. “I can’t believe it’s me. I love my hair to bits. It’s so pretty. I never would have thought to do it like that.”
“Believe me, darling. It didn’t take much effort on my part to make you stunning because you already are. And the hair was Marcus’s idea. He specifically asked me to pin it up off your neck.”
Pearl gently trailed her hand across her neck. “Does it look funny without jewellery? I don’t have any. Only these tiny diamond studs I always wear. All the other women will be wearing beautiful jewellery: necklaces and rings and tiaras and bracelets and dangling earrings.”
“Don’t worry, you don’t need any jewellery. You are perfect without. There’s no need to gild the lily. Now, let’s get you to the party before you miss it all. Go and show your mum and dad how gorgeous you are while Dave and I pack the car. I reckon they’ll be dying to see you all done up. Then we’ll get going.”
Chapter 22
Marcus
Marcus stood in front of the mirror, tweaking his shirtsleeves, collar, and tie. He would have much preferred casual clothes, but his mother had been adamant this would be an evening dress affair. He felt as though it was someone else staring back at him, as though it wasn’t him at all. He half-expected the other man to hold out his hand and introduce himself as some big business tycoon, and Marcus would wonder how the stranger could be happy living the way he did.
He hadn’t always been unhappy being a member of the Holding family. His childhood was idyllic; oblivious to the extent of his privilege compared to other children, he’d happily and innocently played with his brother and loved his mother. His father was so often not there, seemingly forever away on business, that he’d been almost a stranger when he did come home.
As time went by, it was better when he wasn’t there as he and his wife had begun to fight. Although Marcus the child hadn’t known him well, with hindsight he suspected his father might have longed for a different life far removed from the business world. Not his mother. She loved the thrust and parry, the lavish lifestyle and ostentatious displays of wealth. Life to her was a reality monopoly game: buying land, building businesses, and raking in dollars.
And Ray? Once they’d been so close, and Ray had been his best, possibly only true, friend. His mother discouraged friendships outside her vetted group and he’d found no other real friends inside. When he was young, it hardly mattered. He had Ray to adventure with, to share secrets with, and to share dreams with. Ray dreamed mostly of seeing the world, and spent hours researching different places around the globe and plotting journeys. Marcus wondered if Ray ever thought about the exciting journeys he’d pl
anned as a boy, and how the reality of his time overseas had turned out so differently.
When Ray was thirteen and Marcus eleven, the carefree ambience of their childhood disappeared along with a substantial amount of money, which left the business floundering, and vultures circling. Like a suspense drama, the events unfolded quite slowly, over a couple of years, before reaching critical mass and rushing to the shocking and seemingly inevitable climax. Shortly after the discovery of his father’s body in a car full of carbon monoxide when Marcus was thirteen came the discovery of precisely how much mess George had made of the business: debts were piled up, employees had been underpaid, businesses were running at a loss, and multiple writs had been lodged against companies in the Holding Corporation group for everything from poisoning towns to not paying government fees and taxes.
George’s family were the Holdings who had started Holding Corporation, and they had been searching for money to expand when George met Linda, a beautiful socialite from another wealthy family. Linda had a substantial amount of her own money and an insatiable desire to make much, much more. It would have taken her a long time to amass a conglomerate as big as Holding Corporation if she’d started from scratch, so it had been a business deal for her when she married George; the only bad business deal she’d ever made she’d tell him when haranguing him about his lack of business acumen.
But on the odd occasion she slipped into castigating herself for it, she remembered Ray and Marcus. They were her silver lining. She’d tried to love George, and if he’d been successful, probably would have, but he was weak and incompetent when it came to being a business tycoon, and that she couldn’t love. A hopeless businessman, whatever poetry might have lain fallow in his soul was of no interest or consequence to his wife or the world and went with him to his grave.
Linda played the part of grieving widow for about two days, then got to work. It would have been so easy at that point to just let the business go; she had no shortage of buyers, and despite the debts and bankrupt businesses, she would have been left with a small fortune to enjoy, but that was not what she wanted. She would not have her name associated with failure, and finally with full control of the business, she hungrily took on the challenge of turning it around. Intelligence, vision, lateral thinking, energy and perseverance were qualities she had in abundance, and she brought them all to bear with grim determination.
Their mother conscripted Marcus and Ray as soon as they were old enough, and any protestations were futile. The Holding name, her sons’ name, would not be allowed to sink in shame; it would rise up in greater glory, and the sons were expected to do their part in ensuring that happened. Linda brooked no dissent. Private tutors worked with them ensuring they were accepted into the best universities in the country, and plush offices waited for them every holiday and welcomed them with doors bearing their names after their final graduations.
Ray joined the company full-time two years before Marcus finished his engineering degree, and they had been there together for five years when Ray suddenly quit and disappeared overseas. His mother was devastated. This was not part of her plan, and for the first time since George’s death, she floundered. Hoping that an overseas holiday would bring Ray to his senses, she made sure he had sufficient money to enjoy himself. As it happened, though, it was also sufficient for him to party long enough to develop a drug habit and lose all desire to return to work.
With his father dead and his brother gone, Marcus was the only one who saw how close Ray’s departure had come to breaking the previously apparently unbreakable Linda. She refused to overtly show any weakness, but Marcus saw her stumbles, heard her private, muffled sobs and saw the dark circles under her eyes before multiple applications of make-up covered them. In subtle ways, the child became the adult. His mother wouldn’t allow open shows of affection or admissions of weakness, but Marcus was able to find small ways to show his support. He worked harder than ever. He spent hours discussing how different arms of the conglomerate were doing. He researched and implemented new strategies for additional potential profit. This is what made his mother truly happy, and it satisfied within him a need to protect and take care of her.
Gradually, though, Linda had been able to wrap a cocoon around the wound that was Ray and thus shield herself from the worst of the pain. Not that she forgot or abandoned her elder son; she sent him money whenever he asked and twice sent Marcus to try and bring him home, but gradually she was able to compartmentalise her life and heart and get on with it. She never told Marcus how much it meant to her that he had stood by her; without him she would have been on her own. But together they not only continued the resurrection of the business through the making of many hard decisions that saw long-term employees swept off the payroll as non-profitable businesses were sold or closed, but they completely revitalised and grew it. The ship had been turned around before Ray left, and under the continuing careful steerage of mother and son it had been powering ahead, until the recent worrying signs that it was headed for new rocks and its course, once again, needed recharting.
Marcus sighed. He’d voiced concern about two of the corporations major businesses, one in manufacturing and the other a newspaper publisher, warning his mother that both were vulnerable to the rapid changes evident everywhere. She’d listened and taken his concerns to the board, but two of the power brokers were too conservative and set in their ways to countenance the need for change. They’d grown up in one business environment and had failed to make the necessary adaptations when that disappeared. Believing Marcus to be wrong but not brave enough to openly defy Linda, they’d managed to hide their subterfuge long enough for they themselves to be proved wrong and for Holding Corporation to take quite a big hit. In a better economic time, it wouldn’t have mattered quite so much, but the economy was weak and the family business needed an injection of capital if it was to jettison its unprofitable businesses and ride out this new storm intact.
Falling on their swords, the board had been forced to reorganise and bring in people with the skills and experience needed for modern times. Len, the chief executive officer, a long-time family friend, had been allowed to stay on after the others had gone on condition he resign within six months and make way for one of the Holding brothers. Linda had assumed that would be Marcus but hadn’t yet spoken to him about it when, out of the blue, Ray had rung to say he wanted to get straight and come home, and also that he had a significant amount of money he was prepared to invest in the company. She knew that meant the board would choose Ray over Marcus who had none of his own money to offer, and had come up with the idea that Marcus should quickly get married to a woman with money to invest in the business.
For Marcus, though, Ray’s sudden and unexpected reappearance seemed like a gift. The time they’d spent together since their reunion had convinced him that his older brother was genuinely eager to commit his life to the family business.
“I’ve been to all the places I wanted to go, done all the partying I ever want to do, laid all the women, taken all the drugs, and wasted all the time,” he’d told Marcus over a beer. “I’m not saying I regret it; if I hadn’t done it I might have always felt restless, but I’m over it. Well and truly. And I’m well aware I’ve let the family down, you and Mother. I took off leaving you to do the hard work while I spent the money. That’s changed. I want a proper life. I want to repay the money I’ve taken, and do my share of the work wherever I can be most useful. I expect it will be a while before I’m fully up to speed, but I’m prepared to do whatever it takes.”
“How would you feel about being CEO?” Marcus had asked.
Ray’s beer had stopped half way to his mouth. “CEO?”
“Yep,” and Marcus had sketched out recent events for him, omitting the part about Linda’s choice being himself.
“Why me? You’ve done the hard yards and have a much better knowledge of where things are at the moment.”
“Maybe,” Marcus conceded. “But to be honest, Ray, I don’t want it. A
nd not a word to Mother about this yet. I’m going to tell her soon, but I don’t want to keep working so many hours. There’s other things I want to do. Other places I want to be, and I want more time to myself.” To be with Pearl.
“I don’t think the old girl is going to be too chuffed about that, is she?”
Marcus shrugged. “Probably not, but she’s got no choice but to learn to live with it. And maybe she won’t mind so much. I suspect she and Alan are going to be married in the not too distant future, and you’re home with a bag of money and apparently not averse to marrying one of her daughter-in-law picks. And, let’s face it, you want to be in the business and you have money you want to invest in it. I don’t want to be there, have no money I want to invest, and am not available for an arranged marriage no matter how wealthy the bride or how big her arse.”
Ray laughed. “Well, when you put it like that! And me marrying into money is not a definite yet; I’ll have to see what’s available. But I am ready to settle down. I’d like one woman to come home to at night, and I’d like kids.” He grinned wryly. “I’d like to see if I can do a better job of family life than our parents managed.”
Marcus nodded. “Poor Father. He probably always felt he was living the wrong life, not the one he wanted or would have chosen for himself. In the end, he could only see one way out. I’m not going to let that happen to me.”
“Good for you, and good luck with Mother! Also,” he ducked his head and looked at Marcus from under his eyebrows, “talking of marrying money, are you absolutely certain you have no interest in Tina? Seriously, would you mind if I had a crack at her? She was always so besotted with you she’d never look at me, and maybe that hasn’t changed, but I reckon she and I are a far better match than she and you ever were.”
