“The better question is if they’re ready for the answers I’ll give them,” Hanna said with a smirk.
“You have a good point,” Gregory said, and set his hand over hers. His board of directors wouldn’t know what hit them.
* * *
Dressedin a vintage gown that swished when she moved, walking among the coiffed and primped crowd full of tuxedos and party dresses as a string ensemble played music in the background, Hanna felt as though she had stepped into her very own fairytale. Tonight, she was the princess at the ball, the hostess of a grand celebration at a mansion in England. And after a word with Gregory, nearly akisswith Gregory, her fairy princess status wasn’t even based on a lie. An embellishment, perhaps, but they’d turned the fiction at the heart of her appearance into a fact.
Though she had come to believe the princess myth needed further deconstructing. None of the fairytales she had read discussed how many braying asses the princess had to speak to, nor how many people she did not douse with the contents of her champagne glass.
“We had no idea Gregory had a girlfriend. You didn’t plan this party?” asked Margaret Vanderpool, wife of Charles and apparent snoop for gossip.
Hanna shook her head and gusted a delicate snort. “Goodness, no. I have a career. There’s no time to balance work, time with Greg, and planning this kind of excessive nonsense. Martin’s so good at it, I was glad for him to step in.”
“But don’t the rumors about Martin and Gregory bother you?”
“Of course they do!” Hanna gushed, as if she had waited to talk about this forever. As Margaret leaned in, prepared to receive the personal information she wanted, Hanna added, “It’s so very distressing how people are acting like vultures in this. And the small-minded bigotry! It’s terrible behavior and bothers me profoundly.”
Margaret said a few polite words and excused herself to locate the shrimp cocktail.
Randolph Marano, another of the board of directors, had other concerns as they chatted by one of the antique paintings. “He’s damn young to be a CEO.”
“He has a wise board of directors to guide him,” Hanna said, sipping at the sparkling apple juice she’d asked the staff to keep her stocked with. Everyone else seemed inclined to drink champagne until they turned into bubbles and floated away.
Randolph snorted. “We don’t talk to him much. We take our concerns to Robert, and Robert takes them to Gregory.”
“Why?”
The question earned her confused furrows in his brow. “That’s just how it’s been done. After Henry died, no one wanted to intrude on the family. Robert said he’d play go-between. It’s kept on like that since then.”
“That’s a shame,” Hanna said. “Gregory would prefer more direct communication between himself and his board of directors. So much meaning is lost when a message passes through too many hands.”
Randolph eyed her, taking her measure. Then he ventured, “Robert’s intimated that Gregory isn’t listening to him.”
Oh, has he.Hanna breathed a soft, sad sigh. “Robert is a good man. Acaringman who has an admirable affection for Greg. But it’s so hard for parent figures to let go of the ones they’ve looked out for. I think Robert has started to feel emotional about the transition. Pushed aside. Maybe just a little jealous. Not that I would blame him. He must have been very disappointed when Henry didn’t choose him.”
“We were all surprised,” Randolph admitted. “Right up until the end, we all thought Henry would give the company over to Robert. I went to see Henry in the hospital, then in hospice when he went. We were old golfing buddies. When he first got sick, he talked about Robert taking over, how I thought he’d run the company, the usual. Time passed, and those talks changed. We started talking about what regrets we’d have looking back over our lives.”
Hanna canted her head and made a sympathetic noise. “That had to be emotional to talk about with an old friend.”
“It was. I don’t like to think about everything I regret doing. Or not doing.” His gaze strayed to the staircase, then back to Hanna. “Henry never talked much about what he specifically regretted, but I got the idea he had something in mind. It wasn’t long after he started talking about Gregory as CEO. To me, it seemed like he was just toying with the idea as his health got worse. I didn’t think he’d actually do it until we heard the news he had.”
“That must have been a shock.”
“It was. And even though it’s rude, I don’t mind telling you, it wasn’t a welcome one. It’s nothing against Gregory. It’s just that–”
“–he’s young,” Hanna finished. “I understand. Henry wouldn’t have left the company to him if he didn’t believe in Greg.”
“Maybe. The truth is, I supported him because he had Vivian in his corner.” His gaze wandered to the staircase again, and a tiny smile quirked up the corners of his lips. “Henry never knew what he had in her. I knew she could keep Gregory straight until he found his feet. Then Robert started talking about how young Gregory was, how wild, how ignorant, and I suppose it was too easy to believe that.”
“When did Robert start talking about that?”
“A few weeks ago. Gregory was pulling financial data to look over, and Robert was griping about young businessmen not knowing when to let people do their jobs. He hasn’t shut up about it since.” Randolph took a drink of his champagne. “Want to know a universal truth, Hanna?”
“Certainly.”
“When you get older, you look at young people and all you see is ignorance. Everything theydon’tknow is written on them, plain as day. It’s all you can focus on when they talk, when they decide they like avocados on their toast or want electric cars.” Randolph shook his head. “Then you get a little older still. Maybe you try avocados on your toast, too. You realize, the young people aren’t the ignorant ones.Youare. The world changed out from under you, and now, you don’t know as much as you used to. It’s scary as hell. It’s easier to go right on saying the young people don’t know anything, because the alternative means you went and got old, just like you promised yourself you wouldn’t.”
Hanna felt her lips pull up into a smile. “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think you’ve gotten old at all. Not if you’re wise enough to see that.”