Chapter 46
“Good to have you back,” Charlie said, after tapping on Fiona’s office door with his morning coffee in his hand. He’d arrived back in London late the night before; it was the first time they’d both been in the office since her trip away.
“Don’t bother with pleasantries unless that coffee is for me.”
The Caribbean sun might have warmed her usual pallor, but it had clearly done nothing to soften her approach.
That was fine, because Charlie had some straight-talking of his own to do.
He considered giving her his coffee, but instead turned to Felicity on reception and asked if she’d mind bringing another cup through when she had a moment.
Fiona made a point of checking her slim gold wristwatch. “We might need to reschedule this catch-up meeting to later,” she said.
He didn’t wait to hear why. “I’m afraid I can’t,” he said. “I’ve got an appointment this afternoon.”
“Not in the diary,” she said, arching her penciled brows.
He swallowed his annoyance. Fiona rarely bothered to keep him abreast of her schedule yet kept a keen eye on his.
“We need to talk about Kate,” he said, stepping into the office and taking the seat opposite hers.
She made a show of slowly screwing the lid on her pen and placing it down in a ceramic pen tray on her desk. His gaze snagged on the tray. Deep blue marbled with lava orange.
“Indeed,” she said, looking at him over the top of her glasses.
They paused while Felicity came in and set Fiona’s coffee down, waiting until the door clicked to pick the conversation up.
“I have concerns about the way things are being handled,” he said.
Fiona’s expression flickered, a micro-tell of annoyance, gone as soon as it was there. “I spent time with her U.S. publisher a few weeks ago. They want her out there to do a raft of media interviews. She flies on Friday.”
He put his coffee down and stared across the desk. “You’re not serious.”
She glared straight back. “I’m deadly serious.
The backstory around the publication has become the story that’s selling the book.
They’ve paid big money to get their slice of the action and they want her out there to fulfill her contractual obligations, which in this case means national TV and radio slots to apologize for things in her own inimitable way, without revealing Hugh’s identity, of course.
God knows the woman is fond of her own voice, never one to use three words when three hundred will do—it’s right in her wheelhouse, and for some unfathomable reason, she sells copies. ”
Fiona picked up her coffee cup, indicating the conversation was over as far as she was concerned.
“There’s absolutely no way on this earth Kate is going to the U.S.
or anywhere else to do some goddam hideous apology tour.
” Charlie banged his hand on the desk in temper.
“She’s taken too much heat because of all this already, not to mention the detrimental effect on her family.
It was always an experiment, Fi, and however successful it’s been in terms of sales, it’s not sustainable on a personal level for Kate. ”
“Business strategy isn’t personal,” Fiona said, then sighed and slid her glasses down their golden chain, headmistress to pupil.
“Charles, can I respectfully suggest you take a couple of steps back from the situation and let me handle things from here on in? You’ve allowed yourself to become rather too… embroiled.”
“Respectfully, Fiona, you’re overstepping the mark,” he said.
Her eyebrows fired up into her rigid hairline.
“I’m not sure I’ve made myself properly clear, so for the purpose of clarity, let me speak plainly,” he said. “Kate is my client, not yours, which means you don’t get to make the decisions about what she does and doesn’t have to do.”
Fiona sipped her coffee, unaffected. “It’s all there in the contract.”
Charlie knew Kate’s contract inside out and, technically, Fiona was right. He had one more ace to play, though, and now was the moment to show his hand.
“How does Hugh feel about your plan to send Kate to scrape and grovel on American TV?” he said, watching her reaction carefully.
She lifted one shoulder, her shoulder pad skimming her earlobe. “You know perfectly well that Hugh doesn’t wish to have any involvement.”
“So he doesn’t know,” Charlie said, flat.
Fiona’s eyes narrowed. “He’s away and uncontactable.”
“As far as I’m aware, they have excellent mobile signal in Spain.”
She leaned in, a crack finally appearing in her armor. “Leave Hugh out of this, he needs a break.”
“As long as you leave Kate alone, because she needs one too.”
Fiona stared at him, shaking her head with disappointment. “Jojo would have handled this very differently.”
Charlie had had just about enough of having his father’s memory held over him.
“Leave my father out of this,” he said, shaking his head.
“You know, Fiona, I’ve worried since he died that I don’t have his famous gut instinct, but thanks to you, I know I do.
Something about this whole experiment hasn’t sat well with me since day one, and now, finally, I see what it is—it didn’t take human unpredictability into account.
The arrangement protected everyone but Kate, and now the shit has hit the fan, you’re happy to hang her out to dry for financial gain, to ask her to publicly humiliate herself over and over again on international TV for the sake of sales.
Muriel Blackstock was right—an AI ghost author would have been a better option, because real people are messy.
Sometimes they screw up, and sometimes they say the wrong thing, and sometimes they put everyone else’s needs in front of their own until they practically disappear. ”
Charlie paused for breath, and Fiona didn’t take the chance to jump in.
“And you’re right, with the benefit of his experience my father would have foreseen all of the things that could possibly go wrong, and he’d never have allowed Kate to sign that damn contract in the first place. But then you knew that all along, didn’t you?”
Fiona folded her arms and put her head on one side. Her silence told him everything he needed to know.
“Cancel the U.S. tour, Fiona. Kate has nothing to apologize for and she isn’t going anywhere.” He pushed his chair back and left her office, and for once Fiona didn’t insist on the last word.