“Easy words to say.” Margot gave me the saddest smile. “But ones I thought you’d say after our phone call. However, I’m not just going to hand the keys over to you. You don’t have big business experience, so I want to bring someone in to help. You’ll work with them, and listen to what they say. Put your plans into action, see if it’s a job you want to do and if you can see any green shoots of new business. Then we’ll come back and see where you are.
“Let’s see what you can do in three months initially, six months in all, then we’ll reassess and see if this is best for Voss and you. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t let the business consume any of us. It’s a promise I intend to keep.”
“Who will I be working with?”
“That’s again where Max stepped in. We spoke about it this morning. He suggested someone you know, to make it easier. He came up with Eliza.”
My mouth dropped open. “Carpenter?”
Margot shot me a look. “Do you know another Eliza associated with Max?”
“You want me to work with Eliza Carpenter?” Our myriad encounters as adults flashed before my eyes. Stunted words, brushed shoulders, terse nods across the room. As if the previous years of Highland summer trips, London Christmases,the occasional birthday or anniversary counted for nothing. There was no way in hell that was happening every day.
“It’s a hard no.”
“Then I’m selling the company. Katy has the only other vote right now, and she already told me she’s happy with whatever I decide. You’re 29: until you turn 30, your mother’s will stipulates you don’t have a say. This is not an offer, Poppy. Work with Eliza, or we sell. Your call.”
“But Eliza is…” I couldn’t say the words to Margot.
Stubborn. Opinionated. Disloyal.
Also, blonde.
Sage’s words came back to me:Someone from your past. A woman with blonde hair. There’s something unfinished there.
Holy shit. Maybe Sagewasthe real deal.
“A lovely woman who has agreed to help,” Margot finished.
Every hair on my body stood up. I blinked, and tried to get my focus back in the room.
“You arranged all this on a Saturday morning?”
“What can I say? The Carpenters are hard workers. Plus, she’s living with her dad, so she was there having coffee with us after I got off the phone with you.”
Margot had been at his house? And Eliza was living with her dad following her divorce? Interesting. Last I heard, she didn’t think much of her dad and his life choices.
“And she agreed? Doesn’t she have a job of her own to do?”
“She was…” Margot picked her next word carefully. “Hesitant. But she works for Max and he can spare her for a couple of months, maybe more.” She sighed. “The two of you used to be such good friends. You can get on for a few months, can’t you? It’s that, or you take Andrew. He knows the business inside out, but I suspect you might want to kill him after a week.”
Andrew had been with the company forever. He lived and breathed Voss Watches.
She was right, I would murder him.
I bit my lip. “And what if I want to kill Eliza after a week?”
“Hold your impulses. This company has had enough death to last a lifetime. Tomorrow night, I’ve booked you into that place all the young people love with the lifts on the outside. Drink tequila, work out your differences.” She leaned over and stroked my hand. “And if it’s all too much, you know the alternative. Just say the word.”
That wasn’t going to happen.
I didn’t want to be haunted for the rest of my life.
CHAPTER 4
Imade sure I was at least 15 minutes late, because I’d be damned if Eliza thought I was waiting around for her. Yes, it was childish, so sue me. I’d told Margot I was an adult, but then she’d dropped Eliza on me. She wasn’t playing fair from the start.
I was aware I needed Eliza for the next few months. She’d trained at the hand of her dad. She knew this world. But that was it. Then we could both go back to our lives that had survived just fine without each other in them for the past decade and a half. Fourteen-year-old me would never have guessed I’d lose Eliza for half a lifetime.
