Power of a Woman (10 page)

He had also tried to help her bring up Gideon and Nigel, but her attitude had been the same. “I’ll manage,” she would say, and yes, she had always managed, there was no denying that.

Gideon had been such a moody boy, but
good
like Miles, who had been everybody’s favorite because of his sweetness of disposition, easygoing nature, and steady reliability. He hadn’t changed much, simply grown better, if the truth be known.

Miles was the most lovely human being and certainly the peacemaker in the family.

Power of a Woman / 103

Nigel had been too much of a Jardine to listen to anyone, not even his mother. But she had a strong will and had won the day in the end. But Nigel would not listen to
him
; after all, what did a mere actor know, and one who was his grandmother’s husband to boot and not a blood relative. Nigel had gravitated to Bruce Jardine automatically, almost without having to think about it. He had allied himself with the Jardines, even standing with them against Stevie at one moment in time.

Derek had never really been able to forgive Nigel for that desertion. He had tried, even convinced himself at times that he
had
forgiven Nigel for his treachery. But he hadn’t really; he had merely elected to
forget
, in order to get on with the business of fraternizing with Nigel, since he was Stevie’s eldest son and an integral part of the family. Temporary amnesia, Blair called it.

Blair
. The woman he adored and had from the first day he met her. When he had first set eyes on her he had forgotten everyone and everything, and in an instant he had known that he had been looking for her his whole life.

His marriage to Nina, his first wife, was already beginning to break apart, to crumble. And his falling for Blair, head over heels falling, had been like someone throwing a stick of dynamite into the marriage. All had come tumbling down in a heap around him. What’s more, he hadn’t really cared.

Nothing mattered but her. He wanted 104 / Barbara Taylor Bradford

Blair. He was going to have her. He and Nina had no children to be concerned about, and Nina was already dissatisfied with him, so
anti
him at that point in their life she had described him to an ac-quaintance as a drunken actor, which he wasn’t, far from it. An actor, yes, but not a drunk. Many things, but not that.

And so he and Blair had eventually married and, contrary to what everyone had predicted, they lived happily ever after. She was his true love, his muse, his devoted partner, his greatest critic, and his greatest fan.

She was the one who was always there for him, cheering at the ringside; always there to bandage his wounds; to mop up the mess; assuage his pain; ease the terrible hurts of his daily life. She was everything to him. Like his mother and sister before her, she was a woman he idolized as he had idolized them, and as he still idolized his sister, Gwyneth.

He and Blair had not had children, but this did not really matter to him. After all, there was Stevie and her children, and Nigel’s children. He loved them all, even Nigel, who was so difficult and hard to understand at times. But he was part of Stevie and part of Blair, and therefore he deserved to be loved despite his transgressions.

He glanced at Chloe, who was sitting next to Blair. How amazing it was…she looked as Blair must have looked when she was a young girl. There was no mistaking
her
genes. Chloe will be a Power of a Woman / 105

heartbreaker one day, he decided, observing her surreptitiously. If he and Blair had had a daughter, he felt sure she would have looked like Chloe.

Chloe
. So young, almost too young for eighteen in this day and age, or so it seemed to him. Children were so very grown-up now. He loved Chloe; she was his adored grandchild. And he was terribly guilty of spoiling her, but he just couldn’t help himself.

She was very precious to him, this young girl, and he decided that he must talk to Stevie about Chloe going to college. To Oxford University. That was what she had always wanted. This summer, after she graduated, she must come to England and live with them and do the Oxford entrance exams. Chloe was an intelligent girl, and artistic like her twin brothers, and sharp in the way that Stevie was sharp.

He was sure she would do well, go as far as her mother had gone.

Stevie
. His dearest Stevie. He had always thought of her as his daughter, and she was exactly that, blood or no blood. She had been fourteen when he and Blair married, and rebellious. He had known immediately that she would be a handful, but he simply hadn’t cared or worried about that. He had been ready and willing to take her on and bring her up as his own when he had married her mother.

Those two came as a package, but it was a lovely, and loving, package, one he had been more than happy to accept.

As it turned out, he hadn’t had much bringing 106 / Barbara Taylor Bradford

up to do in the end. Just two years. And then Stevie had met Ralph Jardine and married him within the short span of a year.

He had not been sure about Ralph in the beginning, asking himself what kind of a man it was that seduced a girl of sixteen, an innocent, inexperienced girl who was eleven years his junior.

But their marriage had worked, and he knew that Ralph had truly loved Stevie. He had grown to like Ralph as time went on, and it was with sorrow that he had mourned Ralph’s passing.

Derek shifted in his chair and looked across at Stevie, his eyes suddenly appraising. He was very proud of her. She had become an extraordinary woman. Powerful in so many ways. Powerful in her own business, powerful in the international world of jewelry, and yet it was the power she had within herself that impressed him the most. Her inner strength constantly amazed him. The power of a woman could be formidable.

She was the one who had held everything together after Ralph’s sudden death, once her grief had begun to abate. Bruce Jardine had been hugely affected by his son’s death. After his own heart attack, the man had been half useless, as far as he could ascertain at the time. As for Alfreda, she had been one of the most stupid women he had ever met, a numbskull if ever there was one. An ignorant woman totally crippled by her own ridiculous, and laughable, snobbery.

Power of a Woman / 107

He knew that it was Stevie who had pulled the company around, kept everything running smoothly, and she a mere girl with no experience of business whatsoever then. She had inherited her mother’s guts, and she had immense intelligence, not to mention an uncommon kind of bravery. For indeed it had taken a great deal of courage to go in there at the age of twenty-six and start helping Bruce to run the business. Bruce could deny her tremendous efforts and contributions as much as he wanted, until the day he died, but Derek knew what had really gone on, how much she had done. It was because of Stevie that Jardine and Company, the Crown Jewellers, still existed in London today.

Now his eyes rested on her lovingly. It saddened Derek that she had never remarried. He felt sorry that she was alone, and he frequently worried that she would be lonely in her old age without a partner by her side. For the moment she was a busy woman, of course, caught up in the daily running of Jardine’s. But one day she would retire, step down, hand over to Nigel.

Nigel
. His mind settled on Stevie’s eldest son.

There was no question that Nigel must be plotting against her, if she believed this. But why? It didn’t really make sense.

“G
RANDPA! GRANDPA! WAIT FOR ME.
WAIT FOR

ME!
”

Derek swung around and saw Chloe racing after him across the lawn, and so he paused, stood waiting for her.

“What is it, Chloe? Is there something the matter?” he asked when she finally drew to a standstill next to him.

“No, Grandpa,” she panted, endeavoring to catch her breath. “I just wanted you to wait for me so that I could come with you on your walk.”

“And I thought there was a major disaster, the way you were screaming like a banshee.”

She threw him a swift glance, saw at once that he had a teasing look in his light blue eyes. She relaxed, laughed lightly, then she said, “I
can
come with you, can’t I?”

“Of course, but come along, let’s not stand here.

It’s not that warm today. I was making for 110 / Barbara Taylor Bradford

the summerhouse down by the river. It’s a pleasant walk there and back.”

Chloe nodded, tucked her arm through Derek’s, and fell in step with him.

He said, “You mustn’t shout like that, Chloe, screaming so hard; you could very easily damage your voice.”

“But I’m not going to be an actress, Gramps.”

“Nevertheless, you could hurt yourself, strain your larynx. I once did, and it was very painful, let me tell you.”

“When did you do that?”

“Oh, a long time ago, when I was a young actor just starting out. I was shouting very loudly instead of throwing my voice. You see, I wanted it to reach the back of the theater, and I really did hurt myself in the process, quite badly too. It taught me a good lesson. I went out of my way to learn how to project my voice after that. I could pitch it quite high, but that wasn’t really what was needed to reach the last row. So I worked with a voice coach, who told me that if I spoke very distinctly, I would make everyone in the theater hear me. I soon learned that volume didn’t matter. It was distinctness that did. I also learned to enunciate my words very carefully, without making it seem labored.”

“It must have been exciting when you first became an actor.”

“It was, and it still is, Chloe. There’s nothing quite like walking onto a stage for me, or saying Power of a Woman / 111

those first lines. It’s truly thrilling, if a little frightening sometimes.”

“Frightening?”

“Oh, yes. Like many actors, I often suffer from stage fright. Not as much as I used to, but it still attacks me now and then.”

“You?” Chloe swung her eyes, looked at him, and shook her head in wonder. “Gramps, I can’t believe it! Not
you
, Sir Derek Rayner, the greatest classical actor on the English stage today.”

He smiled slightly. “As I just said, many actors; do have attacks of stage fright. My friend Rich did, he used to tremble excessively at times. Other actors I know experience nausea, and poor old Larry Olivier had a curious nervous laugh when he first walked onto a stage. At the beginning of his career, that is. He managed to get that laugh under control eventually, at least most of the time.”

“And you, Grandpa? What happens to you?”

“I shake a bit, feel sick, think I’m going to vomit, worry that I’m going to forget my lines and make a fool of myself. I suppose that’s what stage fright is about actually, the terrible
fear
that one is going to make a mess of it all and look ridiculous in front of an audience.”

“I understand. It must be awful.”

“It is. Fortunately, it doesn’t last long for me.

Once I’ve said my first few lines, I’m off and away, and I forget everything because I’ve become the character I’m playing. The drama of it sweeps me along.”

112 / Barbara Taylor Bradford

“Sometimes I’ve thought that I would like to be an actress, and I once even talked to Grandma about it, but she sort of…put me off.”

“Did she now.” Derek’s eyes twinkled. He continued. “But you should follow your star, my dear, and never listen to anyone.”

“You’d better not let Mom hear you say that; she’ll be mad at you,” Chloe cautioned.

“You’re right, she would indeed be angry. However, she’s bright enough to know that I speak the truth. Shakespeare said it best when he wrote, ‘To thine own self be true.’ You must always remember that. If you live by this yardstick, you won’t go too far wrong.”

“What Shakespeare meant was that we should be true to our own beliefs. Isn’t that so?”

“Indeed it is. You’re eighteen now, Chloe, and growing up fast. It’ll be time for university soon.”

“Yes,” she said quietly, and held her breath for a moment, wondering whether to confide in him.

“That’s a very small yes, and not at all like you.

Why, you sound like a scared little church mouse.”

Chloe had to laugh. “No, I don’t.”

“Well, what about it? I thought it was always Oxford for you.”

When she did not respond, Derek came to a sudden stop, took hold of her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Chloe, Oxford is magical…a city of colleges and quads, domes and shining spires, the Bodleian Library, All Souls, and the Union.

Power of a Woman / 113

This glorious place does exist, if you want it, darling.”

“I don’t know anymore, Gramps,” she answered, as always being scrupulously honest with him because of his immense integrity and his love for her.

“I see.” There was a moment’s pause before he murmured, “But you were so very positive about going up to Oxford when you were old enough.”

He stared at her keenly, his eyes penetrating.

“What’s happened to make you change your mind?”

Chloe hesitated fractionally, then answered quietly, “Nothing, not really.” She shrugged her shoulders lightly. “I think…well, to be honest, I don’t want to go to college at all, Gramps. I’d like to…work at Jardine’s.”

“Good God! You can’t be serious!” Not waiting for her to say anything, he rushed on. “I can see that you are
very
serious from the look on your face.

Why the change of heart, darling?”

“I don’t know; I can’t really explain it.”

“Have you told your mother this?”

Chloe nodded. “Yes, on Wednesday night, when I first got here.”

“Mmmm. Is she pleased that you want to go and work with her at the store?”

Chloe bit her lip. “Mom wants me to finish my education, go to college. More specifically, she wants me to go to Oxford.”

“That’s perfectly understandable.”

114 / Barbara Taylor Bradford

Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, “I’d like to work with Gideon at the London store.”

Derek was flabbergasted when he heard this, although his expression was unreadable when he said,