Su-Ying coming here at this time of day? Bella thought. And in such a hurry, too? Dear God, not more trouble. Please…
She turned towards the door of her office, hearing the clatter of stiletto heels as her daughter-in-law came down the corridor. The door was thrown open. Su-Ying’s face, normally ivory-pale, was flushed. She saw Martin but ignored him: Martin and Richard had never got on and Su-Ying’s loyalty, as always, lay with her husband.
‘I have very interesting news,’ she said to Bella.
She waited; what she had to say was obviously for Bella’s ears alone.
‘We’ve finished here, in any case,’ Bella said.
‘You want me to speak to the Stock Exchange?’ Martin asked.
About to say yes, Bella hesitated. ‘Leave it a bit,’ she said.
She waited until Martin had left the room, then smiled and gestured to the other chair facing her desk.
‘Sit down and tell me about this interesting news.’
Su-Ying’s world had changed dramatically in recent years. First had come the realisation that she had fallen in love with her husband. She could not have said how it had happened, only that it had.
‘Wo ai nee. I love you.’
She had said it for the first time the night when she later believed Adam had been conceived. Now to say it repeatedly in the throes of passion had become as natural to her as breathing.
Adam’s birth had also affected her very much. She had taken it for granted she would love her son but the delight she felt in him had far outstripped her expectations. Love for her husband and then her son had added a new and wonderful dimension to her life.
There had been other changes, too.
Australia and China had set up diplomatic relations in 1972. To begin with she had kept away from the Chinese consulate in Perth, knowing that the staff there would be hostile to the daughter of a man purged during the Cultural Revolution. But last year had seen the death of the Great Monster, as she had come to think of him, and at once things in China had begun to change.
In Perth, the Chinese consul-general was replaced, along with most of his staff. In China many of those wrongly imprisoned were released. Deng and Su-Ying’s father were restored to favour. Little by little, Deng gained control of the reins of power. Secure from the dangers of the past, Su-Ying visited the consulate regularly to find out what was going on in China and hear what news there might be of her father.
She told herself repeatedly she was happy in her life, yet China would always own a portion of her heart and there were days when she missed it very much.
Now, unexpectedly, there was a phone call that the following morning sent her first to the consulate and then to her mother-in-law’s house.
‘I have had a letter from my father,’ Su-Ying said.
‘That’s nice,’ Bella said. ‘Tell me about it.’
The family was on the edge of disaster but Bella had always believed it was important to empathise with other people’s news. ‘How is your father?’ she asked.
‘He is well. Thank you. But that is not why I am troubling you.’
Bella smiled; she had long grown used to Su-Ying’s formal way of addressing her.
‘So what do you have to tell me?’
‘I have taken the liberty of translating his letter. I hope you will excuse any errors in my English, which I am ashamed to say is still very poor.’
‘Your English is very good,’ Bella said.
She took the folded piece of paper that Su-Ying was offering her. She opened it and studied it silently for several minutes. Eventually she looked up, staring at her daughter-in-law across the desk.
‘This is what he said?’
‘As I said, my English –’
‘Never mind that. This is the meaning of his message? Exactly, without any additions?’
‘It is exact,’ Su-Ying said.
‘You are anxious to see the company survive its present difficulties. That is as it should be. But it would be understandable if your concern led you to read more into your father’s words than he intended,’ Bella said.
‘It is exact,’ Su-Ying said.
‘I see. I shall think about it and get back to you. Do you have any objection to my showing it to Owen and Martin?’
‘None,’ Su-Ying said.
‘Have you discussed it with Richard?’
‘I have spoken to no one. I brought it straight here.’
‘No one in the consulate?’
‘The envelope was sealed. No one else has seen it.’
‘Keep it to yourself for the moment. I may decide to call a board meeting later today. If I do, we can talk about it then.’
After Su-Ying had gone, Bella read the letter again, then put it down on the desk as she thought what it might mean.
Probably nothing, she told herself. There had been so many false hopes, so many starts and stops, that she was reluctant to think positively about this latest development. She would not allow herself to be poisoned yet again by failed hope.
‘She has probably placed an over-optimistic interpretation on her father’s words,’ Bella said aloud.
Yet she had learnt a lot about Su-Ying since she had joined the family and knew it was not like her to make such a mistake.
She picked up the phone.
‘Deborah,’ she said. ‘Get hold of Owen and Martin and say I need to talk to them. As soon as they can get here.’
At three o’clock that afternoon Bella told the Tuckers board that China, the secretive land that for so long had maintained barriers against the outside world, was planning to enter into a phase of sustained economic development for which it would require effectively unlimited quantities of high-grade iron ore.
‘We must tell the bank,’ Martin Dexter said.
‘Not yet,’ Bella said. ‘We have nothing to show them but hope, and that is not a commodity that carries weight with the banks. What we need is something in writing.’
‘From China? How do you propose to get that?’
‘By going there.’
‘Will they let you in?’
‘Su-Ying will arrange that with her father. I have complete faith she can do it. If she cannot, that letter is meaningless, and why should her father waste his time writing meaningless letters?’
‘The only way to find out is to ask,’ Martin said.
‘Exactly,’ Bella said. ‘And that is what I propose to do.’
‘Assuming they want to go ahead,’ Martin said, ‘there is one thing we need to find out first.’
‘Which is?’
‘How they plan to pay. The last I heard China was broke.’
‘Well,’ Bella said, ‘we all know how that feels, don’t we?’
Bella spoke to Su-Ying, who contacted the Chinese consulate, who contacted her father. Within a week everything had been arranged. Bella would visit China as an honoured guest of the People’s Republic.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
There were no scheduled flights between Australia and China but the consulate, now totally compliant, arranged an embassy plane. The plane was old and uncomfortable but at least it got her there. On the fifteenth of February Bella was in a bitterly cold Beijing: the first significant miner from Australia to be admitted to the new China.
There were receptions, applause, flowers presented by smiling girls as delicate as flowers. Half-blinded by camera flashguns, Bella found herself the symbol of the ties a newly emergent country wished to forge with the outside world. Modernisation had been adopted as an official policy. Huge overseas loans had been arranged with European banks. Teams from Germany and Japan would build new steel complexes. There were plans to build power stations and railways, open oil and gas fields… All of which would require steel. Billions of tons of steel. It was a new world. Liberation!
Officials pressed Bella to tell them what Tuckers could supply, and when. There would be other suppliers in both Australia and Brazil but, as the first to respond to China’s needs, they assured he
r that Bella and her company would have a place of honour in China’s plans. When would she be able to start deliveries?
It was the salvation she had been seeking. Memoranda of understanding were prepared. She knew she would have to ask the banks – again! – for additional funding but, with official Chinese documents to confirm the agreements, it would be on an altogether different basis than before.
It was a feeling that should have filled her with delight but did not. After so long, the prospect of wealth seemed fraudulent, an exercise in self-deception. Bella was fifty-seven years old and things had gone wrong so often in the past that she could not believe her troubles were finally over. Experience had taught her that disaster always appeared when you least expected it; it was impossible to imagine anything else.
Yet reality seemed determined to prove her wrong. From threatening to lop off her head, commercially speaking, the banks now could not do enough for her. Anxious shareholders were soothed, ruined infrastructure replaced. A year later, with the loaded wagons pouring in a continuous stream along the repaired railway, Port Anthony was functioning at full capacity.
Bella stood on the wharf with Mr Hong and watched the first bulk carrier pulling out into the Timor Sea on its way to China.
‘A great day for your company,’ the Chinese consul said.
‘Indeed it is,’ Bella said. ‘And for China. A very great day for us all.’
She would never tempt providence by saying it aloud but it really did look as though the bad times were behind them and that from now on full steam ahead would be the order of the day.
A year later Rory McNab came to her and said he was planning to get married.
‘Congratulations!’
‘Thanks. But there’s a problem. My fiancée’s from New South Wales.’
‘Why is that a problem?’
‘Her folks have farmed there for over a century and she doesn’t want to move west.’
‘Sit down,’ Bella said. ‘I’ve an idea that might interest you.’
He did so, looking cautiously at her across her desk.
‘Have you been happy with us?’ Bella asked.
‘Very.’
‘All things being equal, would you want to stay with us?’
‘Of course. But –’
‘I am currently negotiating with the New South Wales government for a permit to develop a coal mine northwest of Sydney. According to the survey reports the reserves in that area are phenomenal. If I get the go-ahead, which I anticipate I shall, I shall need a mine development manager to bring the mine on stream. Would you be interested?’
‘You’d better believe it,’ Rory said.
‘Good. I’ll give you all the documentation. Go through it carefully. Then I want you to fly over there, have a look on the ground and see what you think. If you’re happy we’ll draw up your new contract.’
‘If it comes off this will be the second mine I’ve brought in for Tuckers,’ he said. ‘At one time I thought I would never do one.’
‘That was why you came to work for me,’ Bella said.
‘And I’ve never regretted it. But who’ll take my place at Carlisle? With all the new expansion we’ve been discussing you’ll need someone who knows what they’re doing to handle it.’
‘I believe I have the ideal person,’ Bella said.
A week later, after Rory had given the New South Wales project his okay, Bella rang Canada.
‘I’ve got a job for you, if you’re interested. Take over Carlisle.’
‘Run it as I think fit?’
Even now she was on her guard.
‘Absolutely,’ Bella said. ‘And a seat on the board to go with it.’
‘I have to give three months’ notice.’
‘But you’ll take the job?’
‘You’d better believe it.’
Exactly what Rory had said. It must be an in-phrase, Bella thought.
She told Martin. ‘So we get to keep Rory. And Peace will be coming back to run Carlisle.’
‘A good day’s work,’ Martin said.
Bella smiled happily. ‘You’d better believe it.’
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
They had just finished the normal weekly board meeting.
Bella had been heading back to her office when Peace asked for a word. It was a week before the party that Richard had christened Triple B – Bella’s Birthday Bash – and with that on top of everything else Bella was up to her eyes. She sighed but made sure Peace did not see her do so. There were times when she found Peace’s relentless energy exhausting and at today’s meeting she had been particularly difficult, trying to get her own way in everything as usual. On the other hand she had done an excellent job since she had come back from Canada. And she was her daughter, after all.
She looked at her watch. ‘I can let you have five minutes. I can’t spare any more, I’m afraid. I’ve another meeting.’
There were days when Bella’s life seemed to be nothing but meetings: financial report meetings, mine development meetings, the latest review of track and rolling stock maintenance, the inevitable BradMin problem meetings… No end to it.
‘Five minutes will be enough,’ Peace said.
They went into Bella’s office and sat down.
‘How can I help you?’ Bella asked.
‘I think we should make Angus a director,’ Peace said.
Angus Duthie was a property developer with whom Peace had been living off and on ever since she came back from Canada. Now Bella sighed in earnest. She hated saying no to Peace, who took everything so personally, but could not see she had any choice.
‘I’m not sure that now is the right time,’ she said.
Bella had mixed feelings about Angus. He was amiable enough but she was drawn to men who travelled under a black flag and she could see no sign of either skulls or crossbones in Angus’s life. Nevertheless she was willing to tolerate him because of his calming influence on her fiery daughter. If she ever decided to expand the group’s property interests he might prove useful but making him a director now would in her judgement be a step too far.
‘Su-Ying is a director,’ Peace said. ‘Why not Angus?’
‘Angus is not a member of the family.’
She picked up a draft report and began to skim through it, jotting comments in the margin as she went.
‘So what?’
Bella wished Peace would realise that pushing too hard was almost always counter-productive but that was a lesson her impulsive daughter had never learnt.
‘Neither is Martin Dexter,’ Peace said.
‘He has skills we need.’
Bella picked up the phone that connected her with Deborah’s office. ‘Spare me a minute?’
‘Angus also has skills,’ Peace said.
‘But none we need at the moment. Maybe one of these days we shall. Then we’ll see.’
Deborah opened the door.
Bella held out the report. ‘Tell Peter to have another go at this. I’ve made some suggestions.’
When Bella issued instructions she always called them suggestions but they remained instructions nonetheless.
Deborah took the papers and went out, closing the door behind her.
‘That’s another point,’ Peace said. ‘With the China business sewn up maybe we should start looking at the future.’
Bella had known from the first that the business of Angus was a smokescreen; what Peace really wanted to talk about was her future within the group. Yet even now she couldn’t come right out and say it.
‘The China business, as you call it, is a million miles from being sewn up. They are asking us for more production all the time. We’re already at twenty-five million tons a year. As we’ve just been discussing, they are now talking of doubling it, with all that means in new infrastructure, capital costs…’
Yet such talk was also a smokescreen, because Peace’s concerns were legitimate. She was ambitious, enormously talented and wanted to know if she was heir apparent or
not. She would never be satisfied with less, but there was a problem. With better people skills she would make a wonderful CEO down the track but she was always rubbing people up the wrong way. Bella imagined her negotiating with the Chinese government and shuddered.
She would hate to lose her all over again, not only because Peace was her daughter but because of her ability, but Peace would never be satisfied with anything less than the number-one spot and without more finesse she would be a disaster. Of course responsibility did strange things to people. Look at her. She had never thought of herself as a tycoon but that was how the world saw her and she supposed that was what she had become. Did Peace have the potential to grow into the job if it was hers? Bella did not know.
‘You’re right,’ she said. ‘We must look at these things. But I’m up to my ears with China at the moment. I don’t have the time or energy to concentrate on anything else.’
Peace was not fobbed off so easily. ‘When will you have time?’
Bella stared straight at her. ‘As soon as I have something to say on the subject, I’ll say it,’ she said.
* * *
Driving back into Perth that evening, Angus at the wheel, Peace was still spitting.
‘Typical Mother!’ she said. ‘Never a straight answer to anything! Well, she needn’t think I’m waiting forever. If she doesn’t come to a decision soon I shall move on.’
‘I don’t see the problem. You say she’s promised to review the situation when she can.’
‘Are you taking her side?’
‘You know better than that,’ Angus said.
All this was foolishness. He was five years older than she was and had learnt the value of patience; with patience you could achieve a lot. He had been working on Peace ever since he met her and hadn’t got her to the altar yet. But he would; all it took was time.
‘Why can’t she just tell me?’ Peace said. ‘One way or the other? At least that way I’d know.’
‘Maybe she doesn’t know herself.’
A car overtook them, horn blaring. Angus let it go; road rage was not a feature of his life.
Peace put her hand on his thigh.
‘There are times when I think I don’t deserve you,’ she said.
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