‘What?’ he said, bristling immediately.
‘I’m afraid you rather walked into that one, Roger darling,’ said Penny. ‘You can’t act like a brute and a bully and not expect to be called on it, eventually. Now behave yourself, and be nice to our new guest, or I swear I won’t say a single word to you all weekend.’
Roger started to say something, and then fell silent under the force of her glare. It was clear he wanted to stand up to her and equally clear he didn’t know how. Self-confident and self-contained women were always going to be a mystery to a man like him. So he just shrugged quickly, turned back to me and thrust out his hand. I shook it carefully, and then let him have it back again. I did my best to look at him understandingly, and he nodded briefly, as if to say, What can you do? Thus love makes fools of us all. Love, or something like it.
Roger was in his early twenties, tall and gangling, in an expensively tailored suit that hung badly about him because he couldn’t be bothered to stand up straight. Slouching and sulking were obviously full-time occupations for him, because he didn’t understand why wealth and position couldn’t get him the things he really wanted. Like Penny. It was also clear he was only here for the Christmas gathering under protest, to be with Penny. And even more clear that she didn’t want him there. You only had to look at their body language. Roger did his best to project confidence, or at least arrogance, but was undermined by a weak smile and shifting eyes.
‘So,’ I said. ‘What brings you here, Roger? You’re not family …’
‘I nearly was,’ said Roger, deliberately. ‘And I might still be.’
‘Oh, Roger!’ Penny said sharply. ‘Don’t go on. I told you; it’s over.’ She shot me a look that begged for understanding. ‘Roger and I were engaged to be married, but that is very definitely in the past. We’re just good friends, now.’
But all I had to do was look at the way Roger looked at Penny, to know that as far as he was concerned, it would never be over until he said it was over.
We chatted a while, about this and that. Penny filled the air with bon mots, while Roger mostly just grunted. It was actually a relief when Diana arrived, to take me aside for a quiet word. She studied my face for a long moment.
‘I’m sorry, Ishmael; I know I’m staring, but … You remind me so much of someone I used to know. Back in Paris, in the late sixties.’
‘That would have had to be Ishmael’s grandfather!’ said Walter, passing by.
‘It might have been,’ I said gently to Diana. ‘I believe he was in France, about that time.’
And I moved away, ostensibly to get myself a glass of mulled wine. I really hadn’t recognized Diana until we’d spoken. She’d changed so much, since she and I were lovers in Paris, in 1969.
I took a sip of the mulled wine, decided one sip was enough, and put the glass down again. There had to be something here worth drinking. I stood alone, doing my best to look lost in my own thoughts, and listened to what everyone else was saying. I can follow any number of conversations, even when several people are speaking at once. It’s a good way to pick up on things you need to know, that other people don’t want you to know.
Alex Khan still wanted to talk business with Walter, who didn’t. Walter avoided Khan by attaching himself to every group as it formed. Talking cheerfully and loudly, he made sure he was never left alone with Khan. Fuming quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, Khan ended up talking with Roger, who’d been left alone because Penny wasn’t talking to him just then and nobody else wanted to. The young man looked sullenly at the floor while Khan spoke to him, quietly but forcefully.
‘I have been a good friend of your father for many years, Roger,’ said Khan. ‘And while he may be gone now, I know he would want you to do the right thing. You promised me you would invest a substantial sum of money in my company, and I am holding you to your word.’
‘That was when I was engaged to Penny,’ said Roger. He still couldn’t bring himself to meet Khan’s burning gaze, but his voice was firm enough. ‘The investment was to be my wedding present to her. Well; now the engagement is off, you and your company can whistle for the money.’
‘You can afford it,’ said Khan.
‘That’s not the point!’ Roger raised his eyes from the carpet to glare at Khan, his cheeks flushed. ‘You want the money? Then make Penny like me again!’
‘Be reasonable, Roger …’
‘No!’ said Roger, rather more loudly than Khan was comfortable with. ‘I’m tired of being reasonable. It doesn’t get you anywhere. It just means you get taken advantage of and people walk all over you. I’m tired of doing what everyone else wants. Penny led me on and then dropped me, like I was nothing. As though what I wanted didn’t matter. I don’t like feeling like this. I want Penny back; I want things to be the way they were, when I was happy. So; you want the money, Khan? Then you know what you have to do to get it.’ He turned his back on Khan and walked away.
Khan seemed actually startled that Roger was capable of such strong-minded behaviour. He looked around for Walter and caught him in an unguarded moment, alone at the drinks cabinet. Khan hurried over to back Walter up against the cabinet, blocking his escape. Walter scowled at him, but short of shouldering Khan bodily aside, there wasn’t any way out.
‘I told you,’ Walter said stubbornly. ‘I won’t discuss business over Christmas!’
‘You have to!’ said Khan. ‘The whole company is in danger of going under!’
‘You’re exaggerating.’
‘It is my company; I know what is going on.’
‘I think you’ll find it’s still my company, Alex,’ Walter said calmly. ‘Been in my family for generations …’
‘It isn’t your company, Walter, and hasn’t been for some years now. We only keep you on as Chairman of the Board because your name still has some value in the City. But it is the Board who make all the decisions now, and they look to me to take the lead.’
‘And see where that’s led them,’ said Walter, nastily.
‘You aren’t the only one who will lose everything, if the company collapses through underfunding,’ Khan said stubbornly. ‘It nearly went under before, remember? If I hadn’t brought you that new communications technology … But the market has moved on and threatens to leave us behind. We need fresh investment to support our research labs, so we can come up with a new cash cow.’
‘I don’t have that kind of money any more,’ said Walter. He looked quickly around, to make sure no one was listening, and lowered his voice till Khan had to lean forward to hear him. ‘I have the house and the land, and the money they bring in, and that’s it! More than enough to see me out in comfort and leave a nice nest egg for Melanie and Penny, but that’s all. I won’t risk that, to prop up your dreams of what’s best for the company!’
‘You own things, Walter,’ said Khan, entirely unmoved. ‘Art; antiques; land. All worth a great deal of money. Sell something.’
Walter smiled at him mirthlessly. ‘Are things really so bad, you think you can pressure me? All I have to do is wait, and the Board will recognize how worthless you’ve become. And then with any luck they’ll have a rush of sense to the head and throw you out.’
‘I will remove you as Chairman of the Board, if I have to,’ Khan said flatly. ‘By force, if necessary.’
Walter looked at him sharply; when he finally spoke, his voice was calm and controlled and icy cold. ‘You’d have to persuade every single member of the Board to vote together, to outnumber the shares I still command. And there’s no way in hell you’ll ever manage that. Too many of those people owe me.’
‘You are talking about the past, while I am talking about the future,’ said Khan. ‘You are talking sentiment, and I am talking business. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done for those people in the past; they will vote to back me because it is in their best interests to do so. Money trumps friendship, or loyalty, or guilt.’