Chapter 11: CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 11

KELLY poked her head around Gill’s office door, “Hey, Gill, a little birdie tells me Jake’s back in the print room, talking with the new girl Tina.”

“So?” Gill asked listlessly, now heartily sick of the Jake affair. It had been a whole week since she had last seen him, almost as long since she heard from him, when he seemed to be distracted, only going through the motions.

“So, ... I thought you two might have had a tiff, because you’ve been all business, business, business this week. Look, this is a chance to go clear the air. Give him what for, you know, for messing you about, and then tell him that you’re crazy in love with him.”

“Well, I suppose it was fun while it lasted, but no, he’s far too immature for me. I think I’ve had it with all men and their moody silences.”

“Tosh, boss! Anyone can see the both of you are mad about each other, and I know he must be upset over your little spat. Why else would he have a holiday to get over this row with you? Everybody knows he never takes any holiday!” Kelly was exasperated, she thought Gill was a great boss and a great banker, but now she was just being silly. “My source says Tina’s only giving him a briefing of how the last week has gone, he hasn’t even taken his jacket off, so we don’t think he’s staying long.”

Gill sat thinking, undecided for a moment.

“Go on Gill, try and make it up with him or go finish it. What have you got to lose? He can only tell you to get lost and, quite frankly, ever since he went away you have been completely at a loss.”

Gill stood up, “Cancel my appointments for the rest of the day, would you Kelly? ... And thanks, by the way, you’re a sweetheart.”

“Go on, go get him, hon!” Kelly hugged her boss.

Gill rushed off to have one last talk with Jake.

Jake was deep in conversation with the pretty girl labelled ‘Christina’ when Gill stopped at the doorway, but all of the things she had prepared to say to the man she loved evaporated, as she witnessed the girl let out a squeal before throwing her arms around Jake and giving him a joyous hug. Hardly appropriate boss-employee behaviour, especially considering their age difference. Gill blinked back tears and started to backtrack, but bumped into Gerald, her boss, who gently dragged her into the print room with one hand behind her back.

“Ahh, Gill, you are just the person I needed to see, Kelly told me that you were heading this way,” Gerald said to her, then calling out, “Jake! Aunt Gertie’s in hospital, Sir Michael’s been trying to get you all morning —”

“Oh gosh, Gerry, what ward? —”

“I’ll tell you what I know on the way over, Jimmy’s moving the car out front.”

“I’ll let everyone on my side of the family know through Sally, Uncle Gerry,” Christina volunteered.

“By all means, Chrissie, dear,” Gerry replied, “do please let them know, but you know how Aunt Gertie would hate any fuss.”

The young girl nodded in acknowledgement and pulled out her mobile.

Gill stood there, ‘Aunt Gertie, Uncle Gerry, Chrissie, family, Sir Michael?’ She was bewildered with what was going on.

Jake collected his coat from the back of a chair and moved towards her.

“Hi, Gill,” Jake said, squeezing her shoulder, and kissing her forehead, “you’re a sight for sore eyes. I was just coming up to see you after I’d caught up with Chrissie. Just telling her she was officially in charge of running this print room from now on and that the next trainee would be her assistant. Come on, if Gran is asking for you, well, then you need to come too.”

“Yes, Gill,” Gerald insisted, “she was particularly insistent that you come with us.”

Down the corridor and into the lift, Jake held onto Gill’s hand, while Gerald explained that the doctor, Sir Michael, had said she was undergoing tests and they were not to be too alarmed at this stage, but she had been insistent in calling the three of them to her bedside immediately. Gill thought that Sir Michael was just Jake’s skin doctor or plastic surgeon, but it appeared he was Gertie’s general practitioner, too.When they reached the car, Gerald introduced Gill to his driver, an upright middle-aged man called Jimmy, which she thought odd. Jimmy explained with a grin that Chrissie was his youngest daughter, which didn’t do any more to explain to Gill what their relationship to anyone else meant at all.

Gill felt too intimidated by her boss’s presence to discuss her personal life in the car, especially with Gerald concentrating on briefing Jake on various bank events over the past week. Even Jimmy chipped in from the front seat, saying he had sorted out the Istanbul end with the perfect man and assistant for the job. 

Gill was only grateful that Jake maintained a firm grip on her hand throughout and occasionally patted the back of her hand with the other, and twice, during breaks in the conversation, leaned in to ask her solicitously if she was all right, to which could only wordlessly nod her affirmation. She couldn’t fathom out what was going on, only that Gertie wanted her to come.

Jimmy dropped them off at a quiet side door at the hospital, where a distinguished and smartly dressed man in a pinstriped suit stood to meet them, holding a fire door open for the new arrivals to pass through into the building. No introductions were clearly necessary towards the other two, but he extended his hand to Gill.

“Miss Gillian Moorhouse, I’m Sir Michael Rahn, welcome to my hospital, I would hope that your next and future visits would be on less grave occasions. Now, please follow me.”

He led them along a number of corridors through to Gertie’s private room. Gerald strode in front next to the good doctor, asking about what tests were involved.

Jake whispered to Gill, “Michael is my skin doctor that I told you about and he has to check me over a couple of times a year. He’s itching to get his hands on me but he is honest enough to admit that there is nothing pressing that needs doing.”

“That sounds good,” Gill replied, “and he’s also Gertie’s doctor?”

“Yes, of course, he’s our family doctor.”

It was a small, plain room they were directed into, and Gertie was sitting up, propped by numerous pillows. A monitor registered her heartbeat and another her temperature, but there were no drips in view, Gill noted. A nurse removed herself from the room on the faintest of nods from Sir Michael. A short, fat bald man, however, stood patiently in the corner, a portfolio folder in his hands, its red ribbon fasteners hanging down loose.

“I am all right, there’s really nothing to worry about, just in for tests hopefully, but the vultures,” Gertie looked pointedly at Sir Michael, “insist I stay in bed for a few days. That’ll be all, Michael, we have things to discuss.”

“I think I’d rather stay and keep an eye on you, ma’am,” the doctor replied, staring down her glare, “if you don’t mind of course, and taking doctor patient confidence into account.”

She nodded to him with a smile and turned to Gerald.

“OK, Gerry, what have we got?”

“It depends on what Jake has managed to do, really, we haven’t even broached the subject yet. With Jake’s 18, your 13 and my three percent, we are presently 17 percent short of a majority. The hostile bid is led as expected by Winstone’s and they appear to believe they have the upper hand. I have spoken on the quiet to several of the underwriters involved this morning but their blood is up. Jake, what have you managed to arrange in the last week?”

“Oh, I bought the lot, so end of problem, really. I had to sell all the Bolivian mining interests and the Argentinean ranches, as we had discussed, plus the Andes ski resort, which I was a little reluctant about, but used as a tipping bargaining chip it really couldn’t be helped.”

“You have all 100% of Winstone’s?” Gerald asked, rubbing his hands together.

“Yes,” Jake replied, “and Winstone’s has 18% of Standhope Winter so we now have a 52% winning position. I doubt if the board meeting on Wednesday will be anything other than a formality, the bid will be withdrawn today. Jarvis may have heard rumours of the bad news coming his way by now.”

‘Winstone’s? Jarvis? Wayne Jarvis presumably? Board Meeting?’ Gill thought, ‘what’s going on? And now Jake’s let go of my hand!’

“Capital!” Gerald exclaimed, “I’ll get back to work then! Aunt Gertie, I’m so glad to see you looking so well, but then I always assumed that you would be.” He reached over and kissed his aunt on the cheek. “I’ll send Jimmy back to pick you both up,” he declared to Gill and Jake, “while I go and move my office. See you later, and my heartiest congratulations, my dear.” 

He kissed Gill on both cheeks, which he had never done before, and departed.

Gill looked stunned.

She turned and found Jake was kneeling on the floor, looking up at her.

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“I know this isn’t the most romantic place to do this, but the right time is the right time wherever that is, I suppose. Miss Gillian Moorhouse, I know that I love you more than any man can love any woman, and that I have long imagined this moment, ever since I first met you. I once believed it was beyond my wildest dreams. Since you have allowed me to enter your life, my love for you has only been inflamed by you and I want to be with you forever. Would you do me the honour, my dearest Gill, to become my lawful wedded wife?”

He took her hand and with the other withdrew a ring box from his pocket, flipping it open one-handed, revealing a huge deep-blue-tinged diamond. “This was my mother’s ring, the stone reset into the same gold, newly recast to your size. But if you feel you would prefer —”

“No! No! Your mother’s ring? It’s perfect ... of course I’ll marry you, Jake, I love you, but what about Izote?”

“Izote? Oh, she’s a business partner of, well, ours now. As you know, they maxed out their high street bank loans as a start-up business. We both identified that they were insufficiently capitalised and needed more cash to develop the accommodation capacity to make it immediately viable. It’s a sound investment and, with us as silent partners, leaves Rawlyn and Izote to run the business themselves without undue interference. I thought in time, once she’s finished school, Jenny could take my place on their board of directors. That’s what merchant banks do, Gill, we see the potential beyond the initial balance sheet and make the impossible happen.”

“But I oversee any new business at the bank and didn’t see any proposal —”

“That, sweetheart, is because I personally loaned them the money from my, well now our, own accounts.”

“But you went away, you left me, and were totally out of contact.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, I went away, but it was because Wayne was living in your house —”

“On the sofa, Jake, you know he said he had nowhere else to go. I would never —”

“I know, sweetheart, of course you wouldn’t knowingly give anything away, nor would I but we had to be careful. We only promoted Wayne to CEO of Winstone’s in the first instance to give him enough rope and, as expected, he speculated on world markets and lost a fortune, or at least a fortune on paper.”

“On paper?” Gill was even more bewildered, “what does Wayne have to do with Izote?”

“Nothing at all, sweetheart. But, we’ve been monitoring Jarvis and my facilities management team worked the computer interchange to make it appear as though he was trading on the futures market when he was not. We have had programmers working round the clock intercepting and gathering evidence. He has been losing money for some time. It came to light last year, but we couldn’t track down the evidence. It identified a loophole in Winstone’s security.”

“Wayne, my Wayne? OK, not mine exactly, but the kid’s father, you are saying that he was using the bank’s money to speculate?”

“Yes, we figured he was using the bank’s money in private transactions, making profits, which he creamed off and paid the bank back within the accepted settlement period, fiddling the books to hide the transactions. But then he started losing money and he covered the tracks by stealing from other accounts and hiding the transactions.”

“But how?”

“He used dormant accounts, stealing from people who rarely accessed their accounts. Some savers just draw interest, while other accounts have balances that remain idle for years. Winstone’s security was archaic, but we suspected something was going on and, as soon as we tightened up and identified the stolen accounts, whoever was doing it shut down their activities. We had no evidence, so we needed a ‘cookie jar’.”

“We tightened up, sorry, who’s ‘we’?”

“Me, Gran and Gerry already had about 25 per cent of Winstone’s Bank between us. They gave me their shares and I set about buying the rest. Through Gran’s influence with Winstone’s board, we retired the old CEO and appointed Wayne in his place, sat back and watched for him to start his tricks again. Then he did the completely unexpected. He had held a limited-by-invitation board meeting two weeks ago, during which he blamed the bank’s losses on his predecessor and managed to get the board’s agreement to put together a takeover bid for Standhope Winter, to disguise the losses from the City. And then he shut down the bank’s print room, locking Sally out and breaching their contract with SWN.”

“So you couldn’t talk to me with Wayne around?”

“It was essential that he had no inkling of what we were doing and even who I was. If he bothered to look at the shareholding in Winstone’s and, being a private bank there were only a dozen holders on the register, which we held off on the updating of as long as we could. As you know, I had already chanced a brief meeting with Wayne Jarvis at Jenny and Clay’s request, but once he moved in, well....”

“So you weren’t worried about him and me, and stayed away from me for that reason?”

“Absolutely not. I know I can trust you, Gill. I know we love each other and only needed a small push to commit to each other for life. You are no longer the insecure woman you were at Christmas, you are a confident, beautiful woman who knows she is adored by her family and me, not necessarily in that order.”

Gill smiled and pulled him in for a kiss, “Yes, I am that woman, or if not exactly, at least you make me feel like I am. I was worried about us all this week, but I do love you.”

“And I love you too, but I must leave you now and ensure the takeover at Winstone’s is a smooth one. And I want to be the one to personally tell Wayne what is happening to him.”

“Will he go to prison?”

“What, the father of my soon-to-be-stepchildren? No,” he chuckled, “he’s going to manage the Istanbul branch.”

“Ah, that’s where Istanbul comes in. I heard you talking in the car. But isn’t that a dangerous part of the world for a Westerner?”

“Speak to Jimmy, he’ll reassure you of Wayne’s safety, he has hand-picked two guys to accompany him at all times.”

“Jimmy the driver?”

“Yes, he’s a member of the Nicholls family, our family, darling, you’ll meet them all soon enough, long before the wedding. Pretty well all the print shops’ staff, the IT contractors, the bank’s drivers, the cab drivers, the security staff, caterers, cleaning staff are family or connected by marriage, working for my, our companies. I must be off, do you want to walk down to the car with me?”

“I’d like a quiet word with Gill first, if I may, Jake,” Gertie said from the bed, “girls’ talk ... essential girls’ talk.”

“Of course, Gran, I was forgetting for a moment the presence of Barrington. Gill, would you and your lovely children care to join me for dinner tonight at our apartment?”

“Yes, of course, that would be lovely, what time?”

“I might be a little late and, I guess, you might be too; Gerry will explain your new role. I’ll ring you later and give you some idea once I have assessed the situation at Winstone’s. Just let yourself in, OK?”

“OK.”

“Say you’ll stay the night; Clay and Jenny have already packed enough clothes and will be picked up from school by our cab company. I spoke to them this morning. Kelly should have the forms for you to fill out for the school, so that our cab company can collect the kids. They’ll have sorted out what rooms they want as their bedrooms by the time you get home, I’m sure. You OK with that?”

“Yes, darling, I’ll see you when you get home,” Gill said. “And is it Jimmy, Sally and her husband that want to move into my old house? Because they can as soon as I pack my personal stuff. I’ll leave it fully furnished.”

“Thanks, Gill, Sally will be relieved. Actually, it is only Sally, Grant and her sister Chrissie that want to move into your place; Jimmy’s taking the Janitor’s flat. He’s your driver now, so it will be handy all round to have him on the premises.”

Gill still looked dizzy, “My driver?”

Jake kissed and hugged her; “Gerry will explain everything when you get to the office. I’ll send Jimmy back to collect you. See you tonight, my love.”

He kissed his grandmother before leaving, “now don’t overtax yourself, Gran, I’ve got this covered. You just rest and get well, we have a wedding to arrange and I want you on the front pew behind me.”

“Of course, dear, I’ll only keep her a couple of minutes, besides Michael is here to ensure I do not overdo it.”

Jake nodded to Barrington and Sir Michael, finally squeezing and kissing Gill’s hand as he went by her and departed.

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