Part 5
Leonard let out a sharp, disbelieving breath.
Natalie looked down at her notebook. The last word she had written ended in a line where her pen had slipped.
“You can’t be serious,” Leonard said.
“I am.”
“With respect, running the charitable arm—”
Raymond closed his folder.
“You will have every opportunity to discuss the transition and the work. You will not use this meeting to diminish her qualifications.”
Several men looked away. One remained very still, his mouth compressed into a pale line. Natalie could feel the attention moving over her clothes, her notebook, her place beside Raymond, as though something in those details might explain his decision.
She had expected a question about the foundation. Instead, she had been offered authority over matters she had spent years hearing discussed by people who barely noticed her in the room.
Raymond stood.
“My choice is made. Ms. Vale will have your cooperation. We’ll meet again when the responsibilities have been formally set out.”
Chairs moved back. Leonard gathered his papers with exaggerated care. As he passed Natalie, he gave her a tight nod that contained no welcome.
She stayed seated until the last man had gone.
Raymond glanced at her notebook, then at her face. He did not ask for an answer in the suddenly empty room.
By evening, the news had reached Evelyn.
Her call came while Natalie was still at the office. She asked to see her at the house, and the strain in her voice made Natalie agree without suggesting another day.
Evelyn was waiting in the formal sitting room when Natalie arrived. The room opened onto the dining area where they had celebrated Raymond’s birthday three years before. Someone had turned on the lamps, but Evelyn sat away from them, holding a tissue in both hands.
“Tell me you haven’t accepted.”
Natalie set her bag on a chair. “We haven’t discussed the details yet.”
“Then there’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“To make him see how wrong this is.” Evelyn looked up. Her eyes were red. “I know what Adrian did. I know he brought this on himself. But must he lose even this?”
Natalie sat opposite her.
“Raymond offered me a job, Evelyn.”
“He offered you Adrian’s future.”
The words remained between them. From the hall came the soft sound of Teresa closing a cupboard.
Evelyn twisted the tissue.
“You have done wonderfully with the foundation. Everyone says so. Why can’t that be enough?”
Natalie looked toward the dining room, then back at her.
“Because he’s asked me to consider different work. Work he thinks I can do.”
“You don’t know those men. They’ve spent their lives in that room. They will make you miserable.”
“I know they don’t want me there.”
“It’s a man’s business, Natalie. That’s simply how it is.” Evelyn leaned forward. “And whether Adrian ever comes back or not, it should remain his family’s business. His father built it.”
“I was family, too.”
Evelyn flinched, and Natalie regretted the hurt without withdrawing the words.
“I’m not doing this to take something from him,” Natalie said. “Raymond has watched my work for three years. That’s what this offer is about.”
“He’s still my son.”
“I know.”
Evelyn began to cry. Natalie reached for the box of tissues and set it nearer her, but when she tried to say more, Evelyn shook her head.
They parted with none of their usual careful pleasantries.
Later, Natalie went to Raymond’s study. He was reading beneath a shaded lamp, his glasses low on his nose. He removed them when she came in.
“Evelyn spoke to you.”
“Yes.” Natalie remained standing. “She thinks I’m taking what belongs to Adrian. Leonard thinks you’ve lost your judgment. I imagine the others are deciding how little cooperation they can give without openly refusing you.”
“Probably.”
“Then why do it this way? Why put me in a room where everyone is waiting for me to fail?”
Raymond laid his glasses on the open report.
“Because that room needs someone they haven’t already agreed with for twenty years.”
“That isn’t an answer about me.”
“All right.” He leaned back. “You took an organization that had become ceremonial and made it useful. You built a program people elsewhere now study. You managed money carefully, hired for ability, and kept working when people assumed you were there to be indulged.”
Natalie folded her arms, then let them fall.
“The results have been good for the communities we serve,” he continued. “They’ve also earned Veylor more genuine credibility than years of expensive promotion. You understood a connection we were failing to make.”
“A foundation isn’t a logistics company.”
“No. You’ll have a great deal to learn.”
His plain agreement steadied her more than reassurance would have.
“And those men will challenge every decision,” she said.
“Yes.”
“You won’t be able to settle every argument for me.”
“I have no intention of trying.”
She looked at him for a long moment.
Raymond leaned forward, resting his forearms on the desk.
“Don’t accept because you think this is a reward. The work will be harder. The opposition will be personal. I can appoint you, but I can’t make them trust your decisions. You’ll have to accomplish that yourself.”
Natalie glanced at the documents spread before him. Once, the sight of all that consequential paper would have made her hesitate at the door.
“Your family name isn’t my concern,” he said. “What you do when the work gets difficult is. I know enough now to offer you the chance. Whether you want it is your decision.”
She could hear Evelyn moving in the hallway beyond the study. Somewhere downstairs, a door closed.
Raymond waited.
Natalie thought of the boardroom, of Leonard’s dismissive breath, and of the questions she would need answered before she could begin. She would need the acquisition files. The current expansion proposals. Time with the people whose work rarely reached that table except as a number.
“Do you want the position?” Raymond asked.
“Yes.”
Natalie pulled out the chair across from his desk and sat down.