Julius Badrutt smacked his dry lips and said, “Believe me, Miss Roffe, we are most sympathetic. We understand the terrible emotional stress you have gone through, but we cannot—”
“Three months,” Elizabeth said. “Ninety days. With your getting additional penalty interest, of course.”
There was a silence around the table. But it was a negative silence. Elizabeth could see their cold, hostile faces. She decided on one last desperate gamble.
“I—I don’t know whether it’s proper for me to reveal this,” she said with deliberate hesitation, “and I must ask you to keep it confidential.” She looked around and saw that she had their interest again. “Roffe and Sons is on the verge of a breakthrough that’s going to revolutionize the entire pharmaceutical industry.” She paused to heighten the suspense. “This company is about to reveal a new product that our projections show will far outsell every drug available on the market today.”
She could feel the change in the atmosphere.
It was Julius Badrutt who rose to the bait first. “What—er—type of—?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “I’m sorry, Herr Badrutt. Perhaps I’ve already said too much. I can only tell you that it will be the biggest innovation in the history of this business. It will require a tremendous expansion of our facilities. We’ll have to double them, perhaps triple them. Of course, we’ll be looking for new financing on a large scale.”
The bankers were glancing at one another, exchanging silent signals. The silence was broken by Herr Badrutt. “If we were to give you a ninety-day extension, we would naturally expect to act as the prime bankers for Roffe and Sons in all future transactions.”
“Naturally.”
Another exchange of meaningful looks. It’s like a form of jungle drums, Elizabeth thought.
“In the meantime,” Herr Badrutt said, “we would have your assurance that at the end of ninety days all your outstanding notes will be met in full?”
“Yes.”
Herr Badrutt sat there, staring into space. He looked at Elizabeth, then looked around at the others, and received their silent signals. “For my part, I am willing to agree. I do not think a delay—with penalty interest—will do any harm.”
One of the other bankers nodded. “If you think we should go along, Julius…”
And it was done. Elizabeth leaned back in her chair, trying to conceal the feeling of relief flooding through her. She had gained ninety days.
She would need every minute of that time.
CHAPTER 25
It was like being in the eye of a hurricane.
Everything flowed across Elizabeth’s desk from the hundreds of departments at headquarters, from the factories in Zaire, the laboratories in Greenland, the offices in Australia and Thailand, from the four corners of the earth. There were reports on new products, sales, statistical projections, advertising campaigns, experimental programs.
There were decisions to be made on building new factories, selling old ones, acquiring companies, hiring and firing executives. Elizabeth had expert advice on every phase of the business, but all final decisions had to be made by her. As they had once been made by Sam. She was grateful now for the three years she had worked with her father. She knew much more about the company than she had realized, and much less. Its very scope was awesome. Elizabeth had once thought of it as a kingdom, but it was a series of kingdoms, run by viceroys, with the president’s office as the throne room. Each of her cousins had charge of his own domain, but in addition they supervised other overseas territories, so that they were all traveling constantly.
Elizabeth soon learned that she had a special problem. She was a woman in a man’s world, and she discovered that it made a difference. She had never really believed that men subscribed to the myth of the inferiority of women, but she quickly learned better. No one ever put it into words or acted overtly, but Elizabeth was faced with it every day. It was an attitude born of ancient prejudices and it was inescapable. The men did not like taking orders from a woman. They resented the idea of a woman questioning their judgments, trying to improve on their ideas. The fact that Elizabeth was young and attractive made it worse. They tried to make her feel that she should be at home, in a bed or kitchen, and that she should leave serious business matters to the men.