“That’s her plan.” He took her in his arms again. “My plans are right here.”
“She’ll hate me, Tony. I don’t want that.”
“Do you know what I want?” Tony whispered.
And the miracle started all over again.
It was another forty-eight hours before Kate Blackwell heard from Tony. He had disappeared from the Wyatt Ranch without an explanation or good-bye and had flown back to New York. Charlie Wyatt was baffled, and Lucy Wyatt was furious. Kate had made awkward apologies and had taken the company plane back to New York that night. When she reached home, she telephoned Tony at his apartment. There was no answer. Nor was there any answer the following day.
Kate was in her office when the private phone on her desk rang. She knew who it was before she picked it up.
“Tony, are you all right?”
“I’m f-fine, Mother.”
“Where are you?”
“On my h-honeymoon. Marianne Hoffman and I were m-married yesterday.” There was a long, long silence. “Are you there, M-mother?”
“Yes. I’m here.”
“You might s-say congratulations, or m-much happiness or one of those c-customary phrases.” There was a mocking bitterness in his voice.
Kate said, “Yes. Yes, of course, I wish you much happiness, Son.”
“Thank you, M-mother.” And the line went dead.
Kate replaced the receiver and pressed down an intercom button. “Would you please come in, Brad?”
When Brad Rogers walked into the office, Kate said, “Tony just called.”
Brad took one look at Kate’s face and said, “Jesus! Don’t tell me you did it!”
“Tony did it,” Kate smiled. “We’ve got the Hoffman empire in our lap.”
Brad Rogers sank into a chair. “I can’t believe it! I know how stubborn Tony can be. How did you ever get him to marry Marianne Hoffman?”
“It was really very simple,” Kate sighed. “I pushed him in the wrong direction.”
But she knew it was really the right direction. Marianne would be a wonderful wife for Tony. She would dispel the darkness in him.
Lucy had had a hysterectomy.
Marianne would give him a son.
21
Six months from the day Tony and Marianne were married, the Hoffman company was absorbed into Kruger-Brent, Ltd. The formal signing of the contracts took place in Munich as a gesture to Frederick Hoffman, who would run the subsidiary from Germany. Tony had been surprised by the meekness with which his mother accepted his marriage. It was not like her to lose gracefully, yet she had been cordial to Marianne when Tony and his bride returned from their honeymoon in the Bahamas, and had told Tony how pleased she was with the marriage. What puzzled Tony was that her sentiments seemed genuine. It was too quick a turnaround, out of character for her. Perhaps, Tony decided, he did not understand his mother as well as he thought he did.
The marriage was a brilliant success from the beginning. Marianne filled a long-felt need in Tony, and everyone around him noticed the change in him—especially Kate.
When Tony took business trips, Marianne accompanied him. They played together, they laughed together, they truly enjoyed each other. Watching them, Kate thought happily, I have done well for my son.
It was Marianne who succeeded in healing the breach between Tony and his mother. When they returned from their honeymoon, Marianne said, “I want to invite your mother to dinner.”
“No. You don’t know her, Marianne. She—”
“I want to get to know her. Please, Tony.”
He hated the idea, but in the end he gave in. Tony had been prepared for a grim evening, but he had been surprised. Kate had been touchingly happy to be with them. The following week Kate invited them to the house for dinner, and after that it became a weekly ritual.
Kate and Marianne became friends. They spoke to each other over the telephone several times a week, and lunched together at least once a week.
They were meeting for lunch at Lutèce, and the moment Marianne walked in, Kate knew something was wrong.
“I’d like a double whiskey, please,” Marianne told the captain. “Over ice.”
As a rule, Marianne drank only wine.
“What’s happened, Marianne?”