Chapter 23: For the Wedding

Thaddeus answered the letter over roast chicken, at his own kitchen table, with a napkin tucked into his collar.

"The answer was yes," he said.

Elias put down his fork.

"Sir?"

"Your offer for Ellery Hotels. Three years ago. It was fair, it was generous, and I would have taken it."

Thaddeus buttered a roll.

"I was tired, and I thought the company was a burden for a girl who liked her own life."

"Grandpa," Margot said.

"Let me finish. Then Otto got to me first." He glanced at her. "And my granddaughter is divorcing him, I'm told."

"The papers are filed. The judge was very quick."

"Good."

Thaddeus turned back to Elias.

"The price you offered was too low, and I'd have raised it, and I'd have enjoyed that."

Elias laughed.

It startled him, she could see, and he put his hand over his mouth.

"The company isn't for sale now," Thaddeus said. "It's going to her."

He pointed his butter knife at Elias.

"But I wanted you to know the door wasn't shut by me."

"Thank you," Elias said.

His voice was not steady.

Bridget, at the end of the table, raised a drumstick in salute.

Later they drove back to the city in the dark, with the lake on one side.

"You're quiet," he said.

"I'm thinking about the watch."

She took it off her wrist at the door of the suite and held it in her palm.

The crystal was clear, and the hands moved.

Before the boardroom it had cost her forty-one thousand dollars and four months.

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