Power.
It was almost too much to take in. Kate sat in David’s office listening to him make decisions that affected thousands of people around the world. The general managers of the various divisions made recommendations, but as often as not, David overruled them.
“Why do you do that? Don’t they know their jobs?” Kate asked.
“Of course they do, but that’s not the point,” David explained. “Each manager sees his own division as the center of the world, and that’s as it should be. But someone has to have an overall view and decide what’s best for the company. Come on. We’re having lunch with someone I want you to meet.”
David took Kate into the large, private dining room adjoining Kate’s office. A young, raw-boned man with a lean face and inquisitive brown eyes was waiting for them.
“This is Brad Rogers,” David said. “Brad, meet your new boss, Kate McGregor.”
Brad Rogers held out his hand. “I’m pleased to meet you, Miss McGregor.”
“Brad is our secret weapon,” David said. “He knows as much about Kruger-Brent, Limited, as I do. If I ever leave, you don’t have to worry. Brad will be here.”
If I ever leave. The thought of it sent a wave of panic through Kate. Of course, David would never leave the company. Kate could think of nothing else through lunch, and when it was over she had no idea what she had eaten.
After lunch, they discussed South Africa.
“We’re going to run into trouble soon,” David warned. “The government has just imposed poll taxes.”
“Exactly what does that mean?” Kate asked.
“It means that blacks, coloreds and Indians have to pay two pounds each for every member of their family. That’s more than a month’s wages for them.”
Kate thought about Banda and was filled with a sense of apprehension. The discussion moved on to other topics.
Kate enjoyed her new life tremendously. Every decision involved a gamble of millions of pounds. Big business was a matching of wits, the courage to gamble and the instinct to know when to quit and when to press ahead.
“Business is a game,” David told Kate, “played for fantastic stakes, and you’re in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.”
And that was what Kate was determined to do. Learn.
Kate lived alone in the big house, except for the servants. She and David continued their ritual Friday-night dinners, but when Kate invited him over on any other night, he invariably found an excuse not to come. During business hours they were together constantly, but even then David seemed to have erected a barrier between them, a wall that Kate was unable to penetrate.
On her twenty-first birthday, all the shares in Kruger-Brent, Ltd., were turned over to Kate. She now officially had control of the company. “Let’s have dinner tonight to celebrate,” she suggested to David.
“I’m sorry, Kate, I have a lot of work to catch up on.”
Kate dined alone that night, wondering why. Was it she, or was it David? He would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to know how she felt about him, how she had always felt about him. She would have to do something about it.
The company was negotiating for a shipping line in the United States.
“Why don’t you and Brad go to New York and close the deal?” David suggested to Kate. “It will be good experience for you.”
Kate would have liked for David to have gone with her, but she was too proud to say so. She would handle this without him. Besides, she had never been to America. She looked forward to the experience.
The closing of the shipping-line deal went smoothly. “While you’re over there,” David had told her, “you should see something of the country.”
Kate and Brad visited company subsidiaries in Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York, and Kate was amazed by the size and energy of the United States. The highlight of Kate’s trip was a visit to Dark Harbor, Maine, on an enchanting little island called Islesboro, in Penobscot Bay. She had been invited to dinner at the home of Charles Dana Gibson, the artist. There were twelve people at dinner and, except for Kate, they all had homes on the island.