Having distributed the shares, Tim Newman felt the next matter Charlie should consider was further appointments to the board. Hambros put up a Mr. Baverstock, a senior partner of the solicitors Baverstock, Dickens and Cobb, whom Charlie accepted without question. Becky suggested that Simon Matthews, who virtually ran the auction house whenever she was absent, should also be appointed. Again Charlie acquiesced, bringing the full complement on the board to nine.
It was Daphne who had told Becky that 17 Eaton Square was coming on the market, and Charlie only needed to see the eight-bedroom house once before he decided that was where he wanted to spend the rest of his life. It didn't seem to cross Charlie's mind that someone would have to supervise the move at the same time as Trumper's was being built. Becky might have complained if she too hadn't fallen in love with the house.
A couple of months later Becky held a housewarming party at Eaton Square. Over a hundred guests were invited to join the Trumpers for a dinner that had to be served in five different rooms.
Daphne arrived late and complained about being held up in a traffic jam on her way back from Sloane Square, while the colonel traveled down from Skye without a murmur. Daniel came over from Cambridge accompanied by Marjorie Carpenter and—to Becky's surprise—Simon Matthews arrived with Cathy Ross on his arm.
After dinner, Daphne made a short speech and presented Charlie with a scale model of Trumper's crafted in the form of a silver cigar case.
Becky judged the gift to be a success because after the last guest had left, her husband carried the case upstairs and placed it on his bedside table.
Charlie climbed into bed and took one last look at his new toy as Becky came out of the bathroom.
"Have you considered inviting Percy to be a director?" she said as she climbed into bed.
Charlie looked at her skeptically.
"The shareholders might appreciate having a marquess on the company letterhead. It would give them a feeling of confidence."
"You're such a snob, Rebecca Salmon. Always were and always will be."
"You didn't say that when I suggested the colonel should be our first chairman twenty-five years ago."
"True enough," said Charlie, "but I didn't think he'd say yes. In any case, if I wanted another outsider I'd rather have Daphne on the board. That way we get the name as well as her particular brand of common sense."
"I should have thought of that."
When Becky approached Daphne with an invitation to join the board of Trumper's as a non-executive director the duchess was overwhelmed and accepted without a second thought. To everyone's surprise Daphne approached her new responsibilities with immense energy and enthusiasm. She never missed a board meeting, always read the papers thoroughly and whenever she considered Charlie hadn't fully covered an item under discussion or, worse, was trying to get away with something, she nagged at him until she got a full explanation as to what he was up to.
"Are you still hoping to build Trumper's at the price you recommended in your original offer document, Mr. Chairman?" she asked time and time again during the next two years.
"I'm not so sure it was a good idea of yours to invite Daphne to become a director," Charlie grumbled to Becky following one particularly raucous meeting in which the marchioness had got the better of him.
"Don't blame me," Becky replied. "I would have happily settled for Percy, but then I'm a snob. "
It took nearly two years for the architects to complete the twin towers of Trumper's, their adjoining walkway and the five floors of offices above Mrs. Trentham's empty space. The task was not made any easier by Charlie's expecting business in the remaining shops to proceed as if nothing was going on around them. It was a source of wonder to all concerned that during the changeover period Trumper's lost only nineteen percent of its annual revenue.
Charlie set about supervising everything, from the exact siting of the one hundred and eighteen departments to the color of the twenty-seven acres of carpet, from the speed of the twelve lifts to the wattage of the one hundred thousand light bulbs, from the displays in the ninety-six windows to the uniforms of over seven hundred employees, each of whom displayed a little silver barrow on his lapel.
Once Charlie realized how much storage space he would need, not to mention facilities for an underground car park—now so many customers had their own vehicles, the costs went considerably over budget. However, the contractors somehow managed to complete the building by 1 September 1949, mainly because Charlie appeared on the site at four-thirty every morning and often didn't go back home much before midnight.
On 18 October 1949 the Marchioness of Wiltshire, escorted by her husband, performed the official opening ceremony.
A thousand people raised their glasses once Daphne had declared the building open. The assembled guests then did their best to eat and drink their way through the company's first year's profits. But Charlie didn't seem to notice; he moved happily from floor to floor checking that everything was exactly as he expected it to be and made sure that the major suppliers were being properly looked after.
Friends, relations, shareholders, buyers, sellers, journalists, hangers-on, gatecrashers and even customers were celebrating on every floor. By one o'clock Becky was so tired that she decided to start looking for her husband in the hope that he might agree to go home. She found her son in the kitchen department examining a refrigerator that would have been too large for his room in Trinity. Daniel assured his mother that he had seen Charlie leaving the building about half an hour before.
"Leaving the building?" Becky said, in disbelief. "Surely your father wouldn't have gone home without me?" She took the lift to the ground floor and walked quickly towards the main entrance. The doorman saluted her as he held open one of the massive double doors that led out onto Chelsea Terrace.
"Have you seen Sir Charles, by any chance?" Becky asked him.
"Yes, m'lady." He nodded in the direction of the far side of the road.
Becky looked across to see Charlie seated on his bench, an old man perched by his side. They were chatting animatedly as they stared across at Trumper's. The old man pointed at something that had attracted his attention and Charlie smiled. Becky quickly crossed the road but the colonel had sprung to attention long before she had reached his side.
"How lovely to see you, my dear," he said as he leaned forward to kiss Becky on the cheek. "I only wish Elizabeth had lived to see it."
"As I understand it, we're being held to ransom," said Charlie. "So perhaps it's time we took a vote on the issue."
Becky looked around the boardroom table, wondering which way the vote would fall. The full board had been working together for three months since Trumper's had opened its doors to the public, but this was the first major issue on which there had been any real disagreement.
Charlie sat at the head of the table, looking unusually irritable at the thought of not getting his own way. On his right was the company secretary, Jessica Allen. Jessica did not have a vote but was there to see that whenever a vote occurred it would be faithfully recorded. Arthur Selwyn, who had worked with Charlie at the Ministry of Food during the war, had recently left the civil service to replace Tom Arnold on his retirement as managing director. Selwyn was proving to be an inspired choice, shrewd and thorough, while being the ideal foil to the chairman as he tended to avoid confrontation whenever possible.