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“If you think it’s going to be good, then it will be. Listen, darling, I hate to cut short our conversation, but I’m due down the hall in two minutes.”
“So what else is new?” She posed the question tongue-in-cheek and without rancor. Their exchanges during work hours were typically brief.
“I have a meeting with Howard, and you know what a stickler he is about punctuality.” Howard Bancroft was Matherly Press’s chief counsel and head of the legal department. “If I’m a nanosecond late, he’ll stay miffed for days.”
“What’s the meeting about?”
“I can’t recall off the top of my head. Something to do with one of our foreign licensees, I believe.”
“I hate to get you on Howard’s bad side,” she said, “but there is something else I wanted to talk about.”
He had to work at keeping the impatience out of his voice. “Then I’ll take the time. What’s on your mind?”
“Is Dad all right?”
“Seems to be. I saw him last evening and talked to him again this morning.”
“He came into the office?”
“No, he called to ask if I could muddle through without him today. I urged him to take off not only today but the remainder of the week. You’re not here, so we haven’t any scheduled meetings that I can’t handle alone. It’s an ideal time for him to take it easy.”
“He’ll get bored.”
“Actually he’s got a fairly heavy schedule. He said he planned to spend the morning at his desk at home to handle some personal chores, then he was having a late lunch with an old crony. They were meeting at the Four Seasons.”
“Lunch with an old crony,” she repeated absently. “I hope he doesn’t drink too much wine.”
“He’s certainly earned the right to have a few glasses of wine at lunch if he wants them, Maris.”
“I know, but I worry about him negotiating the stairs at home. With that weakness in his joints—”
“He needs full command of his equilibrium. I see your point.”
“When someone his age falls and breaks a hip, they sometimes never completely recover. He couldn’t abide being bedridden.”
“I’ll ask Maxine to keep a closer eye on him.”
“No! That would start World War Three,” she exclaimed. “He’ll get mad at her for babying him, and then he’ll get mad at me for asking her to.”
“Another good point,” he said. “How about…”
“What?”
“Well, I was going to suggest that I talk to him about it. Caution him confidentially. Man to man.”
“Yes,” she said, sounding relieved. “I like that plan much better.”
“Then I’ll go over this evening and have a chat with him.”
“Thank you, Noah.”
“You’re welcome. Anything else?”
“Why?”
“Howard’s waiting on me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot. I shouldn’t have kept you.”
