course it isn’t,” Louis said, shaking his head in affront. ’re just not using as many lemons and limes as we used to in the lounge, so they stand around a little longer.”
aren’t we using as many as we used to?”
Marjorie,” Louis said. has all the figures on how much business we’re doing. We’re down a little from what we used to do, but not by much.”
Kate nodded and backed out of the kitchen. ’ll be in the office if you need me.”
Her father’s office—her office now—had been relocated years before to an area off the main dining room, separated from it by a paneled hallway with doors opening into the bookkeeper’s office and the manager’s office as well. The staircase leading up from the old pub to the apartment above had been closed off and a new staircase created that was located next to her father’s office. The apartment itself was still there, but her father had used it only rarely, either when the weather was too bad to drive home or when he’d worked unusually late.
Marjorie was sitting at her desk, her fingers racing over a calculator keyboard, her ledger books spread out over nearly every available surface. O’Halloran is going to quit,” Kate said. you please give him two months’ extra pay in his final check?”
The gray-haired bookkeeper looked up. you going to let Frank quit?”
am I supposed to stop him?” Kate demanded, her fingernails biting into her palms.
don’t know. I guess I thought maybe you’d have an idea.”
do have one idea,” Kate shot back.
’s that, Kate?”
ought to be using a computerized cash-flow system. Those ledger books are as antiquated as—”
me?” Marjorie suggested ironically.
didn’t mean it that way, Marjorie.”
are computerized,” Marjorie said, taking pity on her. orders, reservations, everything. Haven’t you noticed that before?”
course I have!” Kate said, already feeling drained after being there less than half an hour. was talking about the ledgers you’re using right now. Why isn’t that information on computer?”
is, actually. Your father liked the consistency of tracking everything using the same method we’ve always used, so I transfer certain information into the ledgers off the computer.” She waited expectantly for Kate to say something, and when Kate didn’t she dropped her gaze to her calculator and began inputting figures. ,” she said without looking up, ’re not really invested in running this business. You need to think about selling it.”
Wounded to the core now, Kate said nothing and backed out of yet another room, retreating again, because she’d lost complete faith in herself. A few months ago—before Mitchell Wyatt—she would have had enough faith in her own judgment to take a firm stand in the kitchen with Louis, and with Frank, and with Marjorie. But not now. Now she’d lost faith in herself, and on top of that, everyone else was losing faith in her, too.
Because of Mitchell, and because of her pregnancy with his child, she’d been reduced to an exhausted mass of raw emotions and uncertainties. Worse yet, she couldn’t think of the child she was carrying without immediately thinking of what a gullible fool she’d been about his father. For weeks, she’d been waiting to feel some sort of maternal bond with her baby, but it wasn’t happening, and she was starting to fear that her feelings about Mitchell were going to prevent her from loving her baby.
Kate sat down behind her father’s desk and faced the fact that things were likely to get much worse, not better, unless she could find some sort of resolution, and peace, about what Mitchell had done to her. She had to be able to forgive him, and then forgive herself for falling for him. Once she did that, she’d be able to put all the bad feelings behind her and look forward to the future.
In order to forgive and forget, she first needed to understand how he thought and what had happened to him to make him so heartless and vengeful.
Propping her chin on the palm of her hand, Kate considered how to find the answers she needed. . . .
Neither Caroline nor Cecil Wyatt would be willing to talk about him behind his back. Matthew Farrell and Meredith Bancroft knew him, but Meredith had witnessed her confrontation with Mitchell at the Children’s Hospital benefit, and afterward, she’d looked at Kate as if she didn’t exist anymore. In Anguilla, Evan had told her enough about Mitchell’s childhood to make her feel horrified, but Evan certainly wouldn’t fill in any details for Kate now. . . .
In her mind, Kate suddenly saw Gray Elliott taking some files off a thick stack on his desk and bringing them over to the coffee table where Holly and she were sitting. Those particular files had contained photographs, but there had been a lot more files in a pile on his desk.
Feeling more resolute and optimistic than she had in months, she got a phone book out of her desk drawer.
After a fairly long delay, Gray Elliott picked up the telephone. Donovan?” he said, sounding brisk but curious. secretary said you needed to talk to me about an urgent matter.”
do,” Kate said emphatically, it has to be in person.”
’m booked up for several—”
will take only a few minutes, and it is urgent—and very important.”
He hesitated, and Kate could almost see him looking at his calendar. you make it at twelve-fifteen tomorrow? I’ll see you before I go to lunch.”
’ll be there,” Kate said. you.”
Chapter Forty-one
.ELLIOTT WILLsee you now, Miss Donovan,” the secretary said.
Kate stood up and followed her into his office. Yesterday, Kate had looked like a wreck, but today she’d paid careful attention to her appearance, striving for a feminine, summery look she desperately hoped would help offset her last, unpleasant standoff with the state’s attorney. Her sleeveless empire-waisted turquoise jumper concealed her pregnancy and was enlivened by the geometric print, in bright turquoise, lavender, and white, of her linen tote. The jumper was just short enough to be very stylish without revealing too much skin above the knee, and her high-heeled sandals showed off her legs.
To go with the mod sixties look of the jumper, she’d straightened her hair and pulled it back at the sides, holding it in place at the crown with a tortoiseshell clip.
Gray Elliott stood up when she walked into his office, and his brief, startled smile made her feel she definitely looked better than at their last encounter, and that small success was enough to buoy up spirits that had been at a low ebb for so many months.