‘I didn’t mean it that way,’ Kyle answered swiftly, a chagrined expression flickering on her face. ‘It’s just that I’m so upset, Grandma. I hate the fashion business and everything about it. I don’t want to design clothes and sit behind a desk and do shows and cope with imbecilic models who starve themselves to anorexic death and primp and pile ten pounds of icky goo on their faces every day. I want to paint what I see.’
Her young face suddenly became gloriously alive, lost its petulant look, and all of her rebelliousness seemed to fall away from her. Kyle sat forward eagerly, and her dark eyes shone. ‘I want to paint landscapes and seascapes, like I did last summer when I was in Yorkshire with you, Gran. Oh it was lovely, being there at High Cleugh with you, going to Robin Hood’s Bay and the Dales, and sitting with my easel and being quiet and putting beauty down on canvas, as I saw it my particular way… through my own special angle of vision. I was so happy last summer with you, Grandma. Happier than I’ve ever been. And then I had to come back here to New York and go out with Mom on the road. Stupid trunk shows! I detest them. And I detest the Fashion Institute.’
Audra reached out and took the girl’s hand. ‘I know things have been difficult lately, dear.’
‘I’m getting so that I can’t function properly any more, I’m so frustrated and unhappy.’ Kyle took a deep breath. ‘All it would take to make me happy is to be allowed to go to the Royal College of Art in London for a couple of years and then become a landscape painter. But she’ll never understand that. All she’s interested in is making money.’
Audra’s eyes welled with tears. ‘Oh Kyle, that’s not true,’ she said and stopped, found her bag on the banquette, opened it, groped for her handkerchief.
Kyle was distressed and she squeezed her grandmother’s arm. ‘I’m sorry, Gran, I didn’t mean to sound nasty. I’m sorry too if I’ve hurt your feelings. After all she is your daughter.’
‘And she’s your mother, Kyle, and the best mother in the world,’ Audra exclaimed. ‘Take my word for it. She only wants the best for you. Why, she’d give her life for you. I’ve been on your side all along, but I’m not going to be much longer if you play the spoiled child, and speak of your mother in this unkind and disrespectful way.’ Audra fixed her piercing blue eyes on Kyle. ‘Do I make myself clear?’ she asked in a stern and reprimanding voice.
‘Yes, Gran,’ Kyle replied meekly. She had always been a bit afraid of Audra.
‘Very well. Now listen to me, and you’d better listen very carefully… and perhaps when I’ve finished you’ll understand your mother’s motivations, understand her, understand why she loves her business so much. All right?’
Kyle nodded.
‘Your mother was a landscape painter, and she sacrificed her art for the business. She once had what you want so badly right in the palm of her hand. And she was talented, Kyle, gifted, brilliant. But she gave it all up for me… to make money for me… to give me the comforts and luxuries she thought I was entitled to have.’ Audra grasped Kyle’s hand, held onto it tightly. ‘I’ll tell you about it… Christie should have told you but she hasn’t… so I shall tell you now.’
Kyle gave her grandmother her entire attention and as Audra continued to speak much of the anger and irritation with her mother which had been building for the past year dissolved. And when Audra had finished Kyle’s eyes were moist too. ‘What an extraordinary thing Mom did for you, Gran. I wish she’d told me.’ Kyle bit her lip. ‘Do you think she misses painting? Do you think that’s why she doesn’t have much of her own work around in the New York apartment and the house in Connecticut? I mean, you have most of it at High Cleugh, and Aunt Janey has some. Perhaps she doesn’t want to be reminded too much about what she gave up.’
Audra winced. Kyle’s excruciating honesty was unnerving at times. ‘Perhaps she misses it… I don’t really know. We never speak of it. We never have actually, not even in the beginning. But I’ve been wrong, Kyle. We should have talked, she and I.’ Audra settled back against the banquette, looking reflective. I was always afraid of saying the wrong thing, of upsetting her, Audra thought. Yes, I was wrong and in so many ways.
‘I don’t know what to do, Grandmother,’ Kyle muttered. ‘I feel awful. I’ve been mean to Mom for months and months. I must have hurt her dreadfully.’
Audra patted her hand. ‘You won’t have any problems with your mother… I know my daughter very well. She loves you so much. You’re her only child, and she’ll accept your apology and forgive you at once.’
‘Do you think so, Gran?’
‘I know so.’ Leaning closer, Audra smiled for the first time in days. ‘I think I’ve come up with a compromise for the two of you. I’ve been wracking my brains all week, and I think I have the solution, Kyle darling.’
‘Oh God I hope so, Grandma. What is it?’
‘I’m going to talk to your mother again when we get back to the apartment. If she’s still insistent that you go into the business, I’m going to ask her to give you a sabbatical. Mind you, Kyle, you’ve got to promise to give her three years in the business later, if she gives you three years now, allows you to come back to London with me next week. We’ll apply at once to the Royal College, and in the meantime, until you’re accepted, you can live with me at High Cleugh and paint to your heart’s content. So… what do you think?’
‘Gran, it’s brilliant! Brilliant!’
‘Do you agree to keep your end of the bargain?’
‘Yep. I do! I do!’ Kyle’s face glowed.
***
When they left the Carlyle Hotel they walked down Madison Avenue a short way.
It was a pretty Saturday afternoon at the end of May and the lovely weather had brought many people out to gaze in the windows of the elegant boutiques and browse in the art galleries.
‘I think I’d like to go up to Park Avenue and take a cab back to the apartment,’ Audra said, reaching for Kyle’s arm. ‘There are too many people about now.’
‘Are you all right?’ Kyle looked at her grandmother worriedly.
‘I feel a bit tired suddenly.’
Kyle hailed a taxi on Park Avenue and helped Audra inside, and within ten minutes they were alighting in front of the apartment building on Sutton Place where the Newmans lived.
‘Now let me do the talking,’ Audra insisted firmly as they went up in the lift. ‘Keep that busy tongue of yours still for once. And when I’ve said my piece, you can apologize to your mother for your recent behaviour. And you must do that, Kyle, whatever happens. Understand?’
‘Yes.’
Audra was disappointed when they let themselves into the hall.
The huge apartment was deathly quiet and seemed deserted. She knew Alex had had a luncheon engagement to keep, but she had expected her daughter to be home. Then Audra heard footsteps echoing in the marble gallery adjoining the foyer.
Suddenly Christina was standing there, smiling at them, looking impossibly young in a pair of blue jeans and a white silk shirt and lots of heavy gold jewellery. She was positively radiant. The worry and anxiety and rage which had been etched on her face for the past week had completely washed away. She was like a new person. Or rather, like her old self.
‘Hello, you two,’ Christina said brightly, coming forward eagerly, smiling. ‘Did you have a nice lunch? A good talk?’
‘Yes, thank you, we did, Christie.’ Audra narrowed her eyes, wondering what had wrought the change in her daughter.
‘I am glad, Mummy,’ Christina said.
‘I’d like to talk to you,’ Audra announced rather abruptly.
‘Then let’s go into my study.’ Christina spun around and walked down the long gallery in the direction of her den.
Kyle looked at her grandmother and raised a brow. Audra shrugged in answer to the unasked but obvious question. They were both puzzled by the marked difference in Christina and hurried after her, riddled with curiosity.
She stood in the centre of the study, waiting for them. ‘What do you want
to talk to me about, Mother?’ she asked.
Kyle went and perched on the arm of the sofa, and Audra sat down in a chair. She said, ‘Christie, I think I’ve come up with a solution to Kyle’s—’
‘Just a minute,’ Christina exclaimed, holding up her hand. ‘Before we go into that, I want to tell you about the plans I’ve made for your birthday next week, Mummy. Your seventy-first birthday—’
‘Really, Christie,’ Audra interjected crossly, ‘I’m not interested in my birthday. I’ve better fish to fry this afternoon. Kyle is much more important than—’
‘I insist on discussing this first, Mother,’ Christina cut in, her voice strong and firm. ‘And I also want to give you two of your gifts today.’
Audra was furious and her mouth tightened. But she knew better than to interrupt.
Kyle was also annoyed but controlled her own flaring temper, watching, waiting. Whatever her grandma said to the contrary, her mother was impossible.
Christina walked to the fireplace, and stood next to it, resting one hand on the mantel. She said slowly, carefully, ‘My first gift to you, Mummy, is the thing I know you truly want the most in your deepest heart… a granddaughter living in England and studying at the Royal College.’
Audra and Kyle stared at Christina and then at each other. They were stunned.
‘I’ve done a lot of soul searching in the last few days, and I know how wrong I’ve been about Kyle—’ Christina glanced at her daughter, smiled warmly. ‘Kyle must have her chance to follow her own lodestar. As you put it to me years ago, and then again the other day, a child is only ever lent to you. And so I want her to do whatever she wants with her life… it is hers, after all.’
Audra stared speechlessly at her daughter.
‘Mom! Mom! Do you really mean it?’ Kyle shrieked, jumping off the sofa, running to Christina, grasping her arm.
‘Yes, darling, I do. I shouldn’t have tried to push you into the business against your will.’
‘Oh Mom, I’ve been rude and cruel and impossible. I’m so very sorry. Can you ever forgive me, Mom?’
‘There’s nothing to forgive, Kyle. I simply want us to be friends again and I want you to have what makes you happy.’
‘Mom!’ Kyle flung her arms around Christina and kissed her, and they pulled away and looked at each other and laughed and hugged again.
Audra watching them both, thought: Thank God, thank God. Everything’s going to be all right after all.
Christina exclaimed, ‘And now for your second birthday present, Mother, I’ll just go and get it for you.’ She hurried across the floor.
‘Why do you think she changed her mind, Gran?’ Kyle asked the minute they were alone. She was flushed, excited, could hardly contain herself.
‘I’ve no idea. But your mother’s always had her feet on the ground, had a lot of common sense, and perhaps she finally realized as I once did, that you can’t live somebody else’s life for—’
‘Hello, Audra love.’
Audra turned her head sharply at the sound of the familiar voice, and surprise widened her eyes. She pushed herself to her feet and went to him, saying, ‘Vincent. My goodness! However did you get here?’
‘By Concorde,’ he said, and swung his handsome silver head to Alex, who stood behind him beaming. ‘This son-in-law of ours arranged everything. He came to meet me at the airport early this morning, sneaked me in here while you were asleep, then took me out to lunch after you’d gone off with Kyle.’ Vincent smiled at her, ‘Alex and Christie wanted to surprise you. I’ve come for your birthday, love.’
‘And it is a surprise,’ Audra exclaimed, standing on her tiptoes, kissing his cheek. He smiled at her and as he put his arm around her, drew her closer, Audra murmured, ‘Oh it’s so good to see you, I’ve missed you this past week, Vincent, I really have.’
‘And I’ve missed you, Audra.’ Vincent glanced across at Kyle. ‘Now, love, what about a kiss for your grandfather?’
She flew to him. They embraced in the middle of the floor and then, arms linked, they walked over to the sofa and sat down. They had always been the best of friends, and had spent a lot of time together when she had come to England as a child.
Audra turned to Alex. ‘Thank you for bringing Vincent here, Alex, it was such a lovely gesture. And now that I think about it, my birthday wouldn’t have been the same without him, it really wouldn’t… why, we’ve always spent it together—for fifty years.’
Alex put his arm around his mother-in-law, the other around his wife. ‘It was Christie’s idea,’ he said.
‘No, it wasn’t, it was yours,’ Christina contradicted, smiling up at him, her luminous grey eyes shining with love.
Alex bent down, kissed Christina’s brow, said, ‘It doesn’t matter who thought about it—as long as it makes everyone happy.’
‘Yes, that’s true,’ Audra agreed.
She looked across at Vincent and Kyle sitting on the sofa, allowed her eyes to rest on her granddaughter. Then she turned to Christina. ‘Kyle is the fulfilment of life’s purpose… my life and yours. She reaps the benefit of all that we sacrificed for each other, and that’s not such a bad thing, is it?’
Christina looked down at Audra. ‘No, it’s not, Mother, it’s really quite wonderful.’
Reaching out, Audra took Christina’s hand in hers and her bright blue eyes were radiant with happiness as she added, ‘And in letting her go you have kept her for always.’
An Excerpt from A Woman of Substance
By Barbara Taylor Bradford
CHAPTER ONE
Emma Harte leaned forward and looked out of the window. The private Lear jet, property of the Sitex Oil Corporation of America, had been climbing steadily up through a vaporous haze of cumulus clouds and was now streaking through a sky so penetratingly blue its shimmering clarity hurt the eyes. Momentarily dazzled by this early-morning brightness, Emma turned away from the window, rested her head against the seat, and closed her eyes. For a brief instant the vivid blueness was trapped beneath her lids and, in that instant, such a strong and unexpected feeling of nostalgia was evoked within her that she caught her breath in surprise. It’s the sky from the Turner painting above the upstairs parlour fireplace at Pennistone Royal, she thought, a Yorkshire sky on a spring day when the wind has driven the fog from the moors.
A faint smile played around her mouth, curving the line of the lips with unfamiliar softness, as she thought with some pleasure of Pennistone Royal. That great house that grew up out of the stark and harsh landscape of the moors and which always appeared to her to be a force of nature engineered by some Almighty architect rather than a mere edifice erected by mortal man. The one place on this violent planet where she had found peace, limitless peace that soothed and refreshed her. Her home. She had been away far too long this time, almost six weeks, which was a prolonged absence indeed for her. But within the coming week she would be returning to London, and by the end of the month she would travel north to Pennistone. To peace, tranquillity, her gardens, and her grand-children.
This thought cheered her immeasurably and she relaxed in her seat, the tension that had built up over the last few days diminishing until it had evaporated. She was bone tired from the raging battles that had punctuated these last few days of board meetings at the Sitex corporate headquarters in Odessa; she was supremely relieved to be leaving Texas and returning to the relative calmness of her own corporate offices in New York. It was not that she did not like Texas; in point of fact, she had always had a penchant for that great state, seeing in its rough sprawling power something akin to her native Yorkshire. But this last trip had exhausted her. I’m getting too old for gallivanting around on planes, she thought ruefully, and then dismissed that thought as unworthy. It was dishonest and she was never dishonest with herself. It saved so much time in the long run. And, in all truthfulness, she did not feel old. Only a trifle tired on occasion and especially when she became exasperated with fools; and Harry Marriott, president of Sitex, was
a fool and inherently dangerous, like all fools.
Emma opened her eyes and sat up impatiently, her mind turning again to business, for she was tireless, sleepless, obsessive when it came to her vast business enterprises, which rarely left her thoughts. She straightened her back and crossed her legs, adopting her usual posture, a posture that was contained and regal. There was an imperiousness in the way she held her head and in her general demeanour, and her green eyes were full of enormous power. She lifted one of her small, strong hands and automatically smoothed her silver hair, which did not need it, since it was as impeccable as always. As indeed she was herself, in her simple yet elegant dark grey worsted dress, its severeness softened by the milky whiteness of the matchless pearls around her neck and the fine emerald pin on her shoulder.
She glanced at her granddaughter sitting opposite, diligently making notes for the coming week’s business in New York. She looks drawn this morning, Emma thought, I push her too hard. She felt an unaccustomed twinge of guilt but impatiently shrugged it off. She’s young, she can take it, and it’s the best training she could ever have, Emma reassured herself and said, ‘Would you ask that nice young steward—John, isn’t it?—to make some coffee please, Paula. I’m badly in need of it this morning.’
The girl looked up. Although she was not beautiful in the accepted sense of that word, she was so vital she gave the impression of beauty. Her vividness of colouring contributed to this effect. Her glossy hair was an ink-black coif around her head, coming to a striking widow’s peak above a face so clear and luminous it might have been carved from pale polished marble. The rather elongated face, with its prominent cheekbones and wide brow, was alert and expressive and there was a hint of Emma’s resoluteness in her chin, but her eyes were her most spectacular feature, large and intelligent and of a cornflower blue so deep they were almost violet.
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