"I suppose so. Only right now it hurts so b-bloody much."
The following morning they discussed Kate's future.
"You have family in Scotland," David reminded her.
"No!" Kate replied sharply. "They're not family. They're relatives." Her voice was bitter. "When Father wanted to come to this country, they laughed at him. No one would help him except his mother, and she's dead. No. I won't have anything to do with them."
David sat there thinking. "Do you plan to finish out the school term?" Before Kate could answer, David went on. "I think your mother would have wanted you to."
"Then I'll do it." She looked down at the floor, her eyes unseeing. "Bloody hell," Kate said.
"I know," David said gently. "I know."
Kate finished the school term as class valedictorian, and David was there for the graduation.
Riding from Johannesburg to Klipdrift in the private railway car, David said, "You know, all this will belong to you in a few years. This car, the mines, the company - it's yours. You're a very rich young woman. You can sell the company for many millions of pounds." He looked at her and added, "Or you can keep it. You'll have to think about it."
"I have thought about it," Kate told him. She looked at him and smiled. "My father was a pirate, David. A wonderful old pirate. I wish I could have known him. I'm not going to sell this company. Do you know why? Because the pirate named it after two guards who were trying to kill him. Wasn't that a lovely thing to do? Sometimes at night when I can't sleep, I think about my father and Banda crawling through the sea mis, and I can hear the voices of the guards: Kruger...Brent..." She looked up at David. "No, I'll never sell my father's company. Not as long as you'll stay on and run it."
David said quietly, "I'll stay as long as you need me."
"I've decided to enroll in a business school."
"A business school?" There was surprise in his voice.
"This is 1910," Kate reminded him. "They have business schools in Johannesburg where women are allowed to attend."
"But - "
"You asked me what I wanted to do with my money." She looked him in the eye and said, "I want to earn it."
Chapter 14
Business school was an exciting new adventure. When Kate had gone to Cheltenham, it had been a chore, a necessary evil. This was different. Every class taught her something useful, something that would help her when she ran the company. The courses included accounting, management, international trade and business administration. Once a week David telephoned to see how she was getting along.
"I love it," Kate told him. "It's really exciting, David."
One day she and David would be working together, side by side, late at night, all by themselves. And one of those nights, David would turn to her and say, "Kate, darling, I've been such a blind fool. Will you marry me?" And an instant later, she would be in his arms...
But that would have to wait. In the meantime, she had a lot to learn. Resolutely, Kate turned to her homework.
The business course lasted two years, and Kate returned to Klipdrift in time to celebrate her twentieth birthday. David met her at the station. Impulsively, Kate flung her arms around him and hugged him. "Oh, David, I'm so happy to see you."
He pulled away and said awkwardly, "It's nice to see you, Kate." There was an uncomfortable stiffness in his manner.
"Is something wrong?"
"No. It's - it's just that young ladies don't go around hugging men in public."
She looked at him a moment. "I see. I promise not to embarrass you again."
As they drove to the house, David covertly studied Kate. She was a hauntingly beautiful girl, innocent and vulnerable, and David was determined that he would never take advantage of that.
On Monday morning Kate moved into her new office at Kruger-Brent, Ltd. It was like suddenly being plunged into some exotic and bizarre universe that had its own customs and its own language. There was a bewildering array of divisions, subsidiaries, regional departments, franchises and foreign branches. The products that the company manufactured or owned seemed endless. There were steel mills, cattle ranches, a railroad, a shipping line and, of course, the foundation of the family fortune: diamonds and gold, zinc and platinum and magnesium, mined each hour around the clock, pouring into the coffers of the company.
Power.
It was almost too much to take in. Kate sat in David's office listening to him make decisions that affected thousands of people around the world. The general managers of the various divisions made recommendations, but as often as not, David overruled them.
"Why do you do that? Don't they know their jobs?" Kate asked.
"Of course they do, but that's not the point," David explained. "Each manager sees his own division as the center of the world, and that's as it should be. But someone has to have an overall view and decide what's best for the company. Come on. We're having lunch with someone I want you to meet."
David took Kate into the large, private dining room adjoining Kate's office. A young, raw-boned man with a lean face and inquisitive brown eyes was waiting for them.
"This is Brad Rogers," David said. "Brad, meet your new boss, Kate McGregor."
Brad Rogers held out his hand. "I'm pleased to meet you, Miss McGregor."
"Brad is our secret weapon," David said. "He knows as much about Kruger-Brent, Limited, as I do. If I ever leave, you don't have to worry. Brad will be here."
If I ever leave. The thought of it sent a wave of panic through Kate. Of course, David would never leave the company. Kate could think of nothing else through lunch, and when it was over she had no idea what she had eaten.