Tall Poppies (25 page)

Dublin was the climax of a lot of things, she saw that now. Fear, and greed, and anger against a world from which she was permanently barred. Anger at Elizabeth, making her feel once again that she was just white trash. Nina lifted her chin and flicked the dial to Radio One. They could all go to hell. She deserved this promotion, even if that was not why she’d gotten it. The Police were yelling, ‘We are spirits in the material world!’ Nina tapped the steering wheel in time. Yeah, brother, Amen to that.

Tony had his problems too.

‘They involve you,’ he’d said, reaching across her breasts for the Cristal, his green eyes bland.

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‘How?’

‘My darling daughter isn’t happy. She thinks we are stifling her creativity. Or more to the point, that you are. Ever since she came back from her bloody training camp she’s been making merry hell.’ The aquiline face was tight. ‘She’s aggressive. Insistent. She wants me to fire

you.’

Nina sat bolt upright, the silk sheet slithering to her waist. ‘What?’

‘That’s right.’ He was amused at her outrage. ‘She says you never consider her work—’

‘That’s because she never does any. I ask for market research on hospitals, she turns up with cut-and-paste adverts for aspirin.’

‘Do you look at her stuff?’

Nina seethed with resentment. ‘Fuck no. I’m New Products. q want market research. Facts. She reports to me, she should do what she’s asked. I’m not looking for the next Charles Saatchi.’

‘But you may have to humour her, I’m afraid. She’s making good skiing times and she’s in the Olympics this year. She’s talking about making a fuss in the press. Giving interviews.’

‘And you don’t want that to happen?’

‘And that isn’t going to happen,’ Tony said, his voice light as silk round a blade. The darkness in his eyes made Nina shiver. ‘Make her happy, darling, would you? Smooth things over. She is my daughter, after all.’

Nina slipped out of bed as Tony pulled a cigarette from his silver monogrammed case, heading for a shower. She’d been furious. She relied on him to block Elizabeth’s moves in the office, and now the snobbish little cow was going to win? She didn’t understand Savage. He talked about Elizabeth with passionate dislike, but now he was ordering Nina to roll over! Maybe blue blood was thicker than water, after all.

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Nina spun her car into its new slot, closer to the building’s entrance. The paint was still gleaming. She knew she was making a lot of enemies here, and Lady Elizabeth was just at the head of the queue. They would tear her apart like a pack of rabid dogs if Tony ever took his protective hand off her shoulder.

She took out her slim dossier from the back seat. To hell with them all. If she couldn’t be liked, at least she could be good. And that would have to do.

‘Catch!’ Jack spun the box across the room and Elizabeth’s hand shot upwards to grab it. He thumped the table. ‘Reflex like that, you should be in baseball.’

‘Cricket, please.’ Elizabeth smiled as she ripped off the ‘wrapping. ‘Garrard’s! What’s this, another present? Christmas is over, don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.’

She flicked open the small box to find a pendant, a platinum ski on a long chain. ‘Jack, it’s so cool …’

‘It’s not cool, it’s romantic. Look.’ He fished the matching ski out of his pocket. ‘I’m keeping this half. Thought it was better than a split heart or a sixpence or something corny like that. It’s a goodbye present.’

Elizabeth jumped on the eiderdown to kiss him. ‘I love it.’ She wanted to say, ‘I love you,’ but didn’t dare. When you said, ‘I love you,’ men heard, Tve got meningitis,’ they ran away so fast. ‘But what do you mean you’re going away? It’s nearly a month to snow training.’

Jack took the chain from her hands and looped it around her neck. He was quick with the clasp; it still amazed her, the guy was so big and yet so graceful. ‘I got to go back to Texas. Check on my studs, check on the new orders.’

‘Oh.’ Elizabeth frowned. ‘Can’t that wait? Don’t you want to be with me? We’re going to be so busy once training starts, they’ll have the national officials all over

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‘It’s business. I have to go.’

‘You don’t have to, you want to. Whatever.’ She was really pissed off. They’d waited so long, and now all she got was a few days snatched before and after Christmas. His business success was waved like a flag in her face, and Elizabeth felt miserably conscious that her own grand scheme had come to nothing.

‘Hey, you’ll want time at Dragon, right? You made your old man take you on, you might as well make it count for something.’ Jack dropped to the ground and began a fast set of stomach crunches.

‘You’re right,’ Elizabeth said. It was true. She had made Dad take her on, and the power she’d had then she still had now. If that bitch Nina Roth was going to block her, she could have her fired. What was the point of leverage,.if you didn’t use it?

Nina went up to see Tony as soon as she arrived. Mrs Perkins, his secretary, tried to brush her off.

‘Are you down in the book, Miss Roth?’ She made a great play of consulting her diary. ‘Oh dear, I’m afraid

there’s been a mix-up, you’re not here.’

‘I didn’t make an appointment.’

‘You didn’t schedule an appointment? Then it won’t be possible to see him now.’

‘He said I should drop by any time,’ Nina said, trying to smile. Mrs Perkins was giving her a superior gatekeeper’s look that said, I know what you’re all about, you hussy. She probably had a huge crush on Tony herself. Casually Nina fiddled with her cuff to flash her gold Cartier tank watch, set with diamonds, another Tony bauble she could never have afforded on her salary.

Mrs Perkins went white. Bingo, thought Nina maliciously, and he probably sent you out to buy it for me, you uptight old bag.

‘Lord Caerhaven is very busy. He doesn’t see anyone without an appointment.’

‘Mrs Perkins,’ Nina said sweetly, ‘I don’t have much

time. I’m afraid I must insist you buzz him for me.’

She faced the older woman down. Nina knew she was

an insolent Yank brat to her, but still, she was a senior manager and Mrs Perkins was a secretary. Nina had earned her status and she was never going to be put down or blocked off again.

Mrs Perkins’s whiteness blossomed with rage, two red

spots blooming on her cheeks like berries in cream, but

she icily depressed her intercom.

‘I’m sorry, my lord, but Miss Roth insists on my disturbing you.’

‘Nina? Terrific. 5end her in, Mrs P.’

‘He’ll see you now, Miss Roth,’ Mrs Perkins said unnecessarily, her voice thin with annoyance. Nina gave her an insolent wink as she opened the door.

Tony was standing facing his windows, gazing out

over the river that glittered in the weak January sun. He turned to face her, his eyes assessing her pale blue suit and green silk ghirt, her expensive Patrick Cox mules and sheer Wolford stockings. Looking her over with sensual possessiveness. Nina found it arousing but disturbing, the way his eyes stripped her, like a boy appreciating a favoured toy.

‘You like your new parking slot? And you’re wearing

your watch.’ He smiled. ‘What about the earrings?’

‘Too much jewellery’s not appropriate for the office.’ ‘But I like to see you in them. Wear them tomorrow.’ Tony gestured to the notes she was carrying. ‘What’s this?’

‘I think I’ve found you some answers. To the slimming

drug problem. And to Lady Elizabeth, too,’ Nina said.

‘Good girl,’ Tony said warmly.

Elizabeth got into the office to find her friends genially welcoming her back. She smiled and asked them all about their Christmases, but she felt empty inside. Jack had actually flown off and left her, and she wouldn’t see him for weeks. Then there would be a hard haul to reach Olympic Champion skiing level, then the Games themselves. Elizabeth felt sick with nerves. It was ‘82 now, the Olympic year, and the bloody rings were appearing everywhere, on Mars bars and Coke cans and in the papers and on the telly, with endless profiles of herself. Along with Jayne Torville and Christopher Dean, the ice skaters, Elizabeth was apparently Britain’s other dead cert for gold. She thought Heidi and Louise might have a few words to say about that. Heidi was three times World Champion and only beaten by a nanosecond last year. PI, she was Swiss, she’d have been skiing all winter. Cabbies, socialites, and now the rest of the office, everyone was wishing her luck, cheering her on, treating her with a kind of awed respect that felt like a vice crunching her skull, the pressure was so huge. It was incredibly difficult to focus on anything else, but she knew she had to. If she couldn’t wring something out of her bastard father now, she never would later. Win or lose, by Easter the Olympics would be over, and she wanted some kind of role to go back to.

She picked up her internal phone directory and skimmed the pages, looking for Nina Roth’s extension. It had been changed. Now it began with a five. Elizabeth

frowned; five was for people with their own offices. ‘Hey, Tom, has Nina Roth moved departments?’ Tom pointed at the ceiling. ‘Only upwards. She got a promotion while you were away. She’s got her own room now, her own assistant. It’s some kind of record.’

No way, Elizabeth thought angrily. ‘You’re kidding, she only just got here.’

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Tom nodded. ‘Umm, and the boys in New Products aren’t too happy about it either.’

‘But why? What on earth did she do that was so great?’ Elizabeth saw poor Tom suddenly blush and look down. Then it hit her.

Of course. She was always close to Daddy. So now she’s a bit closer; another tart for the harem. Sleeping her way effortlessly up the ladder. Well, that was the only thing Daddy ever rewarded women for, or in the case of Monica, for not making a fuss. Was he bored of the girls in pearls now, Elizabeth wondered acidly, and moving on to career women? What did a hard-nosed robot with breasts do for him?

At any rate, she wasn’t going to let either of them stand ‘in her way. The phone on her desk buzzed loudly. Elizabeth picked it up.

‘Elizabeth, is that you, darling?’ 5he tensed at the sound of Daddy’s voice; the nice words flecked with sarcasm, the way he always spoke to her. She’d spent the wfaole Christmas break riding out over the freezing Caerhaven fields, or going for long hikes along the clifftops, just to get away from that utterly bloody tone. ‘Could you come up to my office? Nina Roth and I have a little suggestion for you.’

Elizabeth checked her reflection in the mirrored door of the lift. Her hair fell loose and glossy over a Jaeger jacket in butterscotch cashmere and matching tweed skirt. She wore low brown heels and eight-denier tights, the thinnest wisps of nothing she could find for her legs. The pre-training session had got her back into shape; she fit the same size twelve now but she was half a stone heavier, her weak legs and buttocks firmed into muscle, her taut upper back making her look taller. A gold cuff bracelet fell over her left wrist and Jack’s long platinum

ski glinted against a cream silk shirt. She had no makeup but she didn’t need it. The healthy athlete’s glow was back in her skin.

The lift doors hissed open and she stepped out to face Mrs Perkins, who gave her an obsequious smile. ‘Lady Elizabeth, how nice to see you, you look beautiful … did you have a nice Christmas? Lots of exercise, I expect?’

Elizabeth smiled graciously and chatted but her heart was thumping loudly in her chest. She could feel the adrenalin surging through her bloodstream, like it did before a race. Nina and Tony. Together. Was she going to need it? Was there going to be a fight?

‘No, no, go in, Lady Elizabeth, of course he’s expecting you,’ Mrs Perkins was twittering. Elizabeth stepped through her father’s lobby, unconsciously rubbing the signet ring he’d handed over at Christmas. All Savage children got theirs at twenty-one, the heavy gold circle cut to fit, stamped with the family crest. I’ve got a bloody right to this, Elizabeth thought, summoning up her anger. He can’t shut me out any more. She walked into Tony’s office.

Nina stood by the desk, listening to Elizabeth and Mrs Perkins murmuring outside. Mrs Perkins sounded remarkably friendly and deferential; but then Elizabeth was quality, after all, and I’m just the help, she thought cynically. Tony got up when his daughter entered the room and walked across to kiss her on the cheek. Nina pasted a smile on her face as she watched them. Christ. Look at the stuck-up little cow. This was the girl who wanted to take her job away! A castle. Swiss finishing school. Hunt balls and tweed skirts!

The earl and Elizabeth said hello and kissed the air by each other’s cheeks. The words were friendly, but the ceremony was stiff. Nina forced the grin off her face

They’re as screwed up as me and my loser folks, in their way.

Tony waved both girls to a seat.

‘Elizabeth, darling, Nina’s had an idea.’

‘Lady Elizabeth.’ Nina nearly choked on it. ‘Do you

recall that New Products was working on a drug, Bz8?’ ‘The slimming pill,’ Elizabeth said.

‘Yeah. That drug was a bust, but the research on it turned up some interesting side effects.’

‘Part of the pill components were vitamins,’ Tony said, ‘intended to replace lost nutrients if the appetite suppressant stopped the punters eating. B-z8 failed toxicity tests, meaning-it poisoned the system—’

‘I know what toxicity means, Daddy.’

Daddy! Speaking quickly to cover her annoyance, Nina ploughed on. ‘Vitamins may be the next big thing in retail. Along with bottled mineral water and keep-fit, we think they’re going to be the craze of the eighties. We were hoping you could help.’

‘So was I, but every time I came up with an idea - for anything - you refused to look at it.’

Elizabeth held the American’s gaze and saw the dark pupils flash, Nina’s lush beauty spiced with anger.

There was a pause. Elizabeth saw Nina glance at Tony, but her father looked blank.

‘Yes, Lady Elizabeth. I realise I “may have been too hasty,’ the dark-haired girl said slowly. She dropped her eyes. Clearly furious.