Chapter 5
The next morning, after their fabulous day sailing on Patrick’s extraordinary boat, Austin Wylie appeared at the house, driving a black Ferrari.
He stepped out of the car wearing white leather pants, a black shirt open to the waist, and black alligator cowboy boots, and put a black Stetson on his head as he got out.
“Who on earth is that, Mom?” Eloise asked Eugenia, watching from the kitchen window, and then she recognized him.
“Oh my God, it’s the Texan from Daphne’s dinner party, the guy with the Russian wife.
What’s he doing here?” He looked out of place but supremely confident as he walked up the front steps onto the porch and rang the bell.
“I have a meeting with him,” was all Eugenia said as she grabbed her phone from the kitchen table and hurried to the front door, while the others continued eating breakfast and paid no attention.
Eugenia greeted Austin Wylie and invited him into the smaller living room.
She noticed that he was wearing a different diamond chain around his neck and a pavé diamond belt buckle, which she assumed correctly was real, and when he took off his Stetson, he had a shaved head.
It somehow looked right with the rest of his image.
He looked like the caricature of a man with a multibillion-dollar fortune who was proud of it and wanted everyone to know. He was sending a very clear message.
“Thank you for meeting with me this morning, Eugenie,” he said politely, and she didn’t correct him on her name.
She could guess that his wife had given him the name that was on the label of her haute couture gowns, a modification of her actual name, and slightly different from her eponymous ready-to-wear line, Eugenia Ward.
“I was interested to hear what you’re thinking,” she said calmly, with a businesslike smile, remembering Patrick’s warnings about him the day before.
“I’ve done a little research,” he said with steely eyes and a cold smile, and his heavy Texas accent. “It looks like you’ve been having some trouble in the pandemic.”
“That’s true.” She didn’t attempt to deny it, and remained unruffled by his comment. “No one has been going to big black-tie parties and wearing evening gowns for the past eighteen months, but hopefully we’ll get back to that soon.”
“What have you done about it?” he asked directly.
“At first, I just waited it out, assuming it would be over quickly, but I’m showing a new line of casual daywear at Fashion Week in New York next month.
I haven’t been out of jeans and sweatshirts myself in eighteen months.
” She smiled at him. “We’ll be doing a lot with denim, and some handmade one-of-a-kind pieces. ”
“That’s smart of you, if you can shore up your sales until times get better.
From what I can tell, the fashion industry has taken a hard hit, you’re not the only one,” he said, his eyes locked into hers, and she didn’t waver or flinch when he said he’d done some research.
It was no secret that evening gowns weren’t selling at the moment, let alone handmade haute couture gowns for astronomical amounts of money, or even wedding gowns.
Large gatherings had not been allowed for over a year.
Weddings had been canceled or postponed, or held with four to six people present.
And wedding gowns had been a big part of her business.
The last gowns she had delivered to her clients had never been worn.
“It’ll come back. Fashion always does. Women can’t stay away from it, which is why I’m here.
I’ve been looking for a project for my wife, and she’s addicted to fashion, high-priced fashion.
That was Chanel haute couture she was wearing the other night,” he said proudly, and Eugenia nodded.
“Yes, I know, I recognized it.” He looked satisfied and impressed for a minute. She didn’t ask him if Natasha had lost the pants to the outfit or just forgotten to put them on.
“She’s taught me a lot about fashion. My last wife was all about jewelry.
Natasha likes diamonds and I give her plenty of them, but she’s all about clothes.
She introduced me to haute couture.” He made it sound like “hot” couture, which in Natasha’s case seemed appropriate, as Eugenia waited to hear the rest. “She’s a bright girl and she needs a project, something to keep her busy.
She’s young. She can’t follow me around all day.
I’ve got four grown kids, and I don’t want to start over with another one.
The ones I have are enough trouble. They’re always in some kind of mess that costs me a fortune.
I could set her up in her own business, but she has no experience.
She needs to learn the ropes before she can do that. And she loves what you do.”
“Thank you,” she said politely, and her smile was no more sincere than his. And then she remembered something she wanted to ask him, for her own peace of mind. “By the way, I thought I saw Natasha yesterday, driving a red sports car, but I wasn’t sure it was her.”
“Was I with her?” He smiled at Eugenia.
“No, she was alone,” Eugenia answered pleasantly.
“Then it wasn’t her. She doesn’t have a license and she doesn’t drive.
I have a red Ferrari too, as well as the black one, but I like this one better.
Natasha had a car accident in Moscow before she came to America.
She was so traumatized that she refuses to drive.
I’ve tried to get her to relax about it, but she’s just too scared, so it must have been someone else, and she was at her favorite spa all day yesterday.
” All of which meant to Eugenia that he didn’t know that his wife drove when she wanted to even without a license, since she was certain that Natasha had been Geoff’s visitor the day before, and she wasn’t surprised Natasha had had an accident previously, given the way she pulled out of the driveway and nearly hit the van they were in.
She’d been in a big hurry to get out. The hat and dark glasses had almost concealed her face but not quite.
“I’ll cut to the chase, Eugenie.” Austin went back to the subject at hand.
“I want to invest in your business, so that Natasha can be as involved as she wants to be. Maybe she can work with you on some designs, that’s up to you.
We live in Dallas, so she won’t be underfoot every day, but maybe you could play her up in the press at your shows, and she could be a part owner in the business, something for her to be proud of and keep her busy.
” What he was suggesting made Eugenia uncomfortable.
She was not going to let anyone interfere with her designs, and having Natasha as an ambassador of her line made her shudder.
But she needed money, and Austin Wylie knew it.
“I can’t let anyone collaborate on the designs,” she said firmly, “but she could certainly appear as a star client at the shows during Fashion Week. I’m sure you have PR people who could place press items of her wearing the gowns, and she’d be welcome to visit us anytime.
And of course if you invest in Eugenia Ward or Princess Eugenie, she’d be entitled to a healthy discount. ”
“I want her to feel some ownership, some pride in sharing the limelight with you. I wanted to put her on some of the boards I’m on, but she’s not interested in hospitals or charity boards, and she has no experience in business.
All she cares about is fashion. I was thinking that maybe ten million would buy her a nice chunk of your business, maybe even a majority participation.
” He was trying to get a bargain, and had tipped his hand while testing the waters.
Now Eugenia knew where he was headed. She looked at him coldly and dug her heels in.
“Mr. Wylie, Austin, my business is worth a great deal more than that. When women start wearing evening gowns again, and it won’t be long, my label will be worth a fortune again, just as it was before.
Ten million won’t even come close to buying you or her a majority interest.” At her last calculation, twenty million would have made her more comfortable while she waited for the tides to turn.
Ten million wasn’t enough, and she wasn’t selling a majority interest in her company for anything close to that.
She wanted to keep control of it herself.
“I’m sorry to hear that, and I’m sure you will bounce back, but right now, today, a company that only sells evening gowns and wedding gowns isn’t worth a damn.
You have no income to speak of and a very heavy overhead, with stores in New York and Paris, a buying office, salaries, high-priced rent, expensive fabrics.
You’ve got plenty going out, and not a damn thing coming in.
” Eugenia was well aware of it and went over the figures constantly, and her accountant had spelled it out for her.
It was the terror she was living with every day, that she couldn’t hold out until the good times returned.
“You could also get some damn fine publicity if you put the spotlight on my wife as a co-owner, or even an investor.” Eugenia cringed inwardly at the thought.
“Maybe we could say a forty-five percent ownership for ten million,” he suggested, and Eugenia shook her head.
“My business is worth a lot more than that, even today. But thank you for your interest.” She didn’t counter his offer, and she could always go back to him, unless he bought something else.
But ten million was nothing to him and they both knew it.
She wanted his money, but not his wife as the figurehead, nor her interference in the business.
Eugenia stood up then, indicating that the meeting was over, and Wylie looked disappointed.
“I hope you give it some thought, unless you have other investors of course.”