There is a saying that goes something along the lines of ‘The best laid plans of mice and men’. There is another one that thanks to Monty Python, has become common place. That is ‘No one expects the Spanish Inquisition’.
No one in the business world expected Frankie Mangan to do what he did a few weeks after the meeting between Garth, Maxine and Adrian.

Mr Mangan flew into the UK in his private Boeing 767 direct from Chicago and spent a day locked away with lawyers in London. He’d recently had to give in to the Teamsters and re-instate the pay cut or they’d literally freeze many of his businesses into bankruptcy. Then he went to ground somewhere in the US Mid-West until…

A week later, Garth had sent them an email suggesting that something was afoot with in the Mangan ‘empire’. He’d said that he might be coming their way which piqued their interest.

Maxine was using the same aircraft flight tracking website as she’d used to track where Garth was to track Frankie Mangan. Frankie Mangan had two Boeing 767’s at his disposal. One was in Texas for an overhaul and the other had flown from Memphis to Chicago and then flew to Madrid overnight. After twelve hours on the ground in Madrid, it had flown north and landed at Stanstead Airport. After that, Maxine had lost track of him until just after the London Stock Market closed a rumour appeared on the newswires about a possible takeover involving Geo-Stay Inc.

As a result of this rumour, shares in the two main operators in that segment in the UK immediately took a dive. They were both down some 15% in after-hours trading. The prospect of Geo-Stay taking over one of their biggest competitors was bad news for all concerned.

That evening, the Financial journalists were set to work to find out if there was any truth in the rumour. The early morning business news had confirmed sightings of him and his entourage going into the City offices of his Lawyers.

Something was afoot but no one knew what it was. The rumour mill was working overtime but lips were remaining tightly sealed. Nothing concrete was leaking.

Adrian emailed what little information they had to Garth. He had little more to add at that time except for Adrian and Maxine to keep on watch. He also said that his sources on Wall Street and in Kentucky were also totally in the dark.

For most of the next day, either Adrian or Maxine was glued to the newswires and stock exchange data feeds. The shares in Hotel groups that were quoted in London and in Frankfurt continued on their downward trend. One of them was down a further 25% on the previous days’ closing price. The market was understandably nervous.

---

The London market closed that afternoon with no more news about a takeover. Just as everyone was going home for the day, the bombshell hit.

News was flashed across the main feeds of Bloomberg and Reuters. Geo-Stay was liquidating their UK operations with immediate effect.

The previously depressed shares in Hotel groups rallied in a flurry of after-hours trading immediately on the news. There was no takeover in the offing. Everyone had it wrong, totally wrong.

By the time Wall St closed that evening speculation was rife on both sides of the Atlantic as to the reasons why this course of action had been taken.

Garth video-called Adrian and Maxine after Wall St had closed for the day.

“Do you have any news on why this is happening?” asked Adrian.

“I do but it is not confirmed yet and may not be until tomorrow,” replied Garth.
“My sources tell me that he has a been hit with huge tax bill which will need paying sooner rather than later. The last thing he needs is a full IRS Audit of all of his enterprises. Writing off the value of the UK operations will more than cover that tax bill.”

“That’s what Donald Trump did isn’t it?” said Maxine.

“Almost,” replied Garth.
“One of his bankruptcies was estimated to have absolved him from paying Income Tax for eighteen years. Now he claims that he is a billionaire. Pah!”

Adrian had to chuckle as the derision coming from a billionaire about another one.

“So Frankie Mangan gets away with possible jail time and close on a thousand or more people are suddenly out of work?” asked Adrian.

“On the surface, it looks that way,” replied Garth.
“I’m flying over tomorrow. Now that he’s put the company into liquidation, he no longer controls the company. The Administrator is in charge and he has little say in how the assets are disposed of other than to get the best value for creditors. If we move quickly we can snap the whole thing up for less than 50cents on the dollar.”

Adrian shook his head and said,
“It can’t be that easy can it?”

Garth laughed.
“It won’t be easy believe me but in principle it is pretty simple. If I offer seventy-five cents on the dollar he’ll still get a whacking tax bill when he takes the residue back to the USA. Remember, I’m finding this from money that is already domiciled in Europe. I’ll be stopping in Dublin tomorrow evening then going to see my bank about getting the funds over to their London Office. I’m going to go in hard here. I’ll pay whatever it takes to get control of the group. Frankie won’t like it but there is little he can do about it but take the money and take the tax hit when he takes it back into the States.”

“Garth, let me get this clear,” asked Maxine.
“You are willing to pay a large premium to get one over on Frankie?”

Garth laughed.
“Yes I am. That’s the way of the world where I come from. But as I said to you, I’m looking at properly turning this group around unlike Frankie whoose sole aim was to run it into the ground, load it with debt and bail out with a profit. It will need a good deal of investment to rectify the damage he’s done since he took it over but I’m not going to sell out overnight. Besides, even if I lost everything on the deal, it is less than three percent of my net wealth. I didn’t get where I am today by not taking risks and this is not a risk believe me.”

“Oh, and as I said, he has to pay the Tax on the money when he takes it back into the country and then he still has to pay the tax bill. That is a win-win in my book. There is nothing the Mangan clan like less than paying Uncle Sam. They’ve been tax dodgers since the days of the Confederacy and he’ll lose a lot of face inside his family and then even more when he finds out who is buying his former assets for literally cents on the dollar will really rub his nose in it. That is a big win for me.”

“What do you need us to do?”

“Nothing at the moment I’m afraid. He’s out manoeuvred us in that respect. I have engaged a firm of Lawyers in London to start the ball rolling with regard to buying the group as a single entity. Naturally, if I succeed, I’ll be cleaning house at the top. They are all Geo-Stay appointees and some of them are on secondment from over here. They’ll all have to go at the very least.”

“Thanks Garth. If you need our help then just let us know.”

“Hey, you guys are the best there is. I would not like to come up against you in business. I have learned a lot from both of you during that day we spent together. That report of yours Maxine had been a real wakeup call to me. Both of you are more than welcome to visit me on this side of the Pond at any time. I consider you friends from here on in ok?”

No one said anything for a bit.

“This may come as a bit of a shock to you two but meeting you and seeing how you work is going to change the way I do business from now on. Well, this deal is a bit exceptional but from then on, I’m not in it for the money. It might be that I’m turning into a bit of an Andrew Carnegie in my old age. You two have shown me that life should not be all about money when you have enough to almost buy a country if you get my meaning.”

“Garth, thank you for those kind words but we really didn’t do much,” said Maxine.

“Maxine, that’s the point. You did your normal job and for that I’m going to be every thankful. Other companies I’ve worked with often try really hard to curry favour with me. Neither of you did anything like that and then you produced that humdinger of a report in just a few days. Magnificent.”

Maxine was visibly blushing. Adrian smiled at her and gripped her hand.

“Thanks Garth. We really appreciate your kind words.”

“Guys, you deserve it. We can get together when this deal had been done ok?”

“Cheers Garth,” said Adrian as he hung up the call.

Neither of them said anything for several minutes.

“What just happened?” asked Maxine.

“I don’t know but we seem to have a very rich friend now.”

“But… for him to change the way he operates because of us? Did he really say that?”

“He did indeed. Well, we must be doing something right then. He did drop a few hints when we met him in Farnborough but… this is a complete change of direction for him.”

“Time for bed I think?”

“Yeah. You go on up and I’ll tidy up down here,” said Adrian.

Maxine was about to say something but thought better of it.

---

The Administration and subsequent purchase of the Hotel Chain by Garth was headline news in the business world off and on for several weeks. Adrian and Maxine followed it with interest. This was piqued when Frankie Mangan went to court to stop the sale. The High Court in London gave him a choice of either outbid Garth or shut the hell up. The Administrator was just doing their job and getting the best result for the creditors one of which just happened to be him. The court reminded him that it was his decision to put the group into liquidation and when the books did not show a dire financial situation, there were some suspicions of a possible fraud. Frankie Mangan disappeared from view.

Maxine tracked his 767 at if flew from Stanstead to Bangor, Maine and then on to Smyrna, Tennessee which was just a short helicopter ride to the family home.

“He seems to have gone home with his tail between his legs,” said Maxine to Adrian. He agreed.

Frankie was not happy and because of the generous price Garth paid for the business Frankie had a combined tax bill of over fifty million dollars. That made him even unhappier but he really had zero control over the sale. It was his own silly fault or rather the fault of his legal team. Garth issued a huge law suit against the team but that got nowhere due to the contract of engagement that he’d signed with the law firm when he bought the Hotel business in the first place.

Nothing more of any significance was heard from Frankie once the deal was done and their normal business operations took precedence. The Wall Street newswires speculated that he’d gone home to Kentucky to lick his wounds. Maxine knew that it was very possibly the case but was always on the alert for him to strike back.

---

[six months later]

“Maxi? Come and look at this,” said Adrian one afternoon.

“What is it?”

“Come here and see for yourself.”

Slightly reluctantly, Maxine got up from her desk and walked over to where Adrian was sitting. He wasn’t at his desk but sitting in the afternoon sun that was streaming through the windows.

“Read this…”

Maxine read an email that was on Adrian’s screen.

“I don’t get it?”

“I thought he was pretty clear. We are being invited to a weekend in Southern France by Garth.”

“But why?”

“That my dear is the sixty-four-million-dollar question.”

“Is that US Dollars or Zimbabwean Dollars?” replied Maxine trying to make light of whole thing.

“At the moment I don’t care. Why has Garth done this now? We have not had so much of a whisper from him once he’d installed a new management team at the Hotel Company and now this?”

Maxine grinned.
“It is almost the end of the grape harvest in the south of France. Perhaps that is why? Don’t we usually visit Carcassonne about this time of year anyway?”

“Yes, we do.”

“Then let’s do it. Lets’ combine both things into one trip. It can’t be all that far from Carcassonne to where he’s going to be unless he’s going to be over in the Basque Country.”

As was becoming more and more common, Adrian could not really argue with Maxine’s logic.

---

Maxine and Adrian flew to Toulouse from London just over a week later. Their first destination was the Vineyard near Carcassonne where Francoise and Jules had their business.

Maxine had been here before and loved the place. It was so different to Reigate or any other place that she’d visited before. It had a warm vibe whereas the gothic thing that she and Adrian lived in Reigate nearly always felt a bit cold. Even in Autumn, she always felt warm and cosy when she was in that part of France.

While Adrian drove their hire car from Toulouse Maxine sat back and enjoyed the view. The increasing frequency of Vineyards told her that they were getting close to the Languedoc Region. Although nowhere near as famous as Bordeaux or the Rhone regions for wine, the efforts of the vineyard that they partially owned were very good indeed. The Silver Medal that they’d received the previous year at the Paris Expo was testament to that.

Jules came out of the winery to greet the couple as their car drew up at the Vinyard.

“Bonjour Maxine, bonjour Adrian. Sa Va?”

Before Maxine could reply, Jules gave her a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. She did the same to Adrian.

“Did you have a good trip?”

“Yes, we did. Very little traffic on the Autoroute from Toulouse.”

“But, you did not fly into Carcassonne as usual?”

“The aircraft wasn’t available so we flew from London to Toulouse.”

“Ah! Please come inside, Francoise has lunch waiting for us.”

The three of them went inside the farmhouse. It was much cooler inside. Even for an early October day, it was hot in the sun.

As usual, the spread of food that was on the table was as if they were feeding forty rather than four.

At the end of the meal, Jules said,

“I am glad that you have come this week.”

“It is the end of harvest and that’s when we normally come over,” remarked Adrian.

“That is true but we have some serious business to discuss this year.”

Maxine looked worried. Adrian’s face remained non-committal.

Jules carried on.
“The harvest has been great. Actually, this year has seen the best quality of grape since we came here. It is the future we are worried about. Two very good producers in this Appellation have had a very bad year. Much of their fruit turned into Raisins almost a month ago. This is all down to the heat. This summer has been hotter than ever and we have had no rain for months. We were lucky as the variety of vine that we have is a good deal more tolerant of the heat and our location is slightly different to theirs. Even so, one part of our lower planting was affected.”

Adrian looked at Francoise who was the plant expert of the pair. Her face was sad.

“Will this get worse?”

Almost together, the hosts said,
“Yes.”

“What ideas do you have to combat this problem? Do you have to plant different varieties of vine?”

Both hosts shook their heads.

“That is not viable in the long term. The soil here is really only good for growing a few varieties of vine. Even the Syrah is touch and go until it is about five years old.”

There was silence around the table for almost ten seconds.

“We are proposing that we sell up here and move north. Start afresh there where it is cooler,” said Francoise.

“Are you going to come to the UK?” asked Maxine.
“There are vineyards popping up all over the place. There is a really good one less than twenty kilometres from us.”

Jules smiled but shook her head.

“No. We are looking at somewhere between Cote de Beaune and the Champagne region. Think of Dijon and go north towards Troyes.”

Adrian smiled and nodded his head.

“That is a nice part of the world. What about a buyer for this place?”

“We think that we can sell up here with all what you English call ‘goodwill’ and buy a place in the north and leave us enough capital to get setup and not need any extra investment but... it would be nice to have some available if we needed it.”

It was Maxine’s turn to get involved. She turned to look at Adrian.

“We did agree some funding for the extra vats which has not been used. It is still in our budget for next year now that Garth isn’t needing our help.”

“That is true so in principle, we are agreed on the move but I’d like Maxine to see the property before you make an offer. Is that acceptable?”

Francoise and Jules looked at each other and visibly relaxed.

“We… we thought you might object?” said Jules.

“Jules… You should know by now, that is not the way we work. You find a place, do the research, put the business plan together and if it is viable then we will back you all the way. You two have proved that you can run a great business here. A very profitable one I might add. Your Medals from Paris are just confirmation of what we have known for some time and that is, that you are great winemakers.”

“However, the different soil, land, weather and everything else may present all sorts of problems. We will have to revise the financial projections for the business once you get settled. That is in the future.”

Jules in particular looked very relieved. She was the one who did the books.

“To the future,” said Francoise as she raised a glass.

Everyone toasted the future.

---

Adrian and Maxine dined alone that evening at their Hotel in Carcassonne.

“You seemed to give in to their plan to move north very easily?” asked Maxine as they waited for their food to arrive.

Adrian smiled.
“I read a report in the Economist a couple of weeks ago about agriculture and how it will have to adapt or move towards the poles due to climate change.”

“So, it was no surprise to you then when they mentioned moving north?”

Adrian shook his head.

“You felt how hot it was earlier. In past years, the autumn rains would have come but nothing significant has fallen yet. It feels more like mid-summer when we used to come to Narbonne on holiday rather than well into Autumn.”

“What about their payments to us?”

“I’d forget about them for this year. They will need all the cash that they can muster for the move. I’m pretty sure that they’ll sell all of this year’s wine in a couple of months. Unless they can hedge the sale of their wine, they won’t have the cash until the end of March when it is bottled. Those two are going to be mighty busy for the next six months. If I were you I’d be looking into the best way to get to… where was it? Ah yes Troyes. Very close to the source of the River Seine if my memory serves me right. Dijon is on the TGV network.”

Maxine remained silent for a while.

“Penny for them?” asked Adrian

“Oh, I was just thinking.”

“Yeah, I can hear the cogs whirring from here!”

Maxine glared at Adrian.
“I it all right for you. You have had how many years at all of this? I’ve had what two and a bit?”

“You will manage just fine,” said Adrian as he reached over the table and gently took hold of her hand.

“I know you will.”

Maxine looked down at the table.

“At times like this I feel so inadequate.”

“Do you think I didn’t when I started this business? I got nowhere for several months. Then I went to a trade show at the NEC where I met Johnny Wynn. I liked his dream and since then his company has gone from strength to strength.”

“It is easier for you. You are a man. I’ve seen the way his brothers look at me especially Andrew. I’m sure that… Well… You know what. I have been on the other side don’t forget. I saw many of my former work colleagues do look exactly like them when a woman they wanted to undress walked into the room.”

Then Maxine added,
“There are others. You really don’t know what it is like to feel that you are being undressed by the very man you are supposed to be doing business with. There are some whom I can do business with. If I have to, I’ll walk away from any deal that involves someone like that.”

Adrian smiled.

“Well said. It seems to me my dear that you have just made a big step forward in becoming a woman mentally. You are starting to assert your own personality.”

“Humpf!”

“Not Humpf! From now on, we will do business your way. Anytime you feel that way let me know and we will walk away from any deal.”

“Fair enough but that still does not resolve the issue of the Wynn brothers?”

Adrian laughed.

“I’ll deal with the Wynn’s and especially Andy. He’s the makeweight of their business.”

“And when you can’t?”

“Ok, ok, I’ll try to get them off the books before… Well, as soon as possible. Deal?”

“Deal!” replied Maxine with a smile and a kiss.

---

The couple concluded their business with Francoise and Jules the following morning. It was agreed that Jules would start looking for a new location for their business in a few weeks once the harvest was all in and in the vats. There was a Wine Expo in Beaune at the end of the month. Beaune is the other side of Dijon from where they were going to look but it was a good excuse for sniffing around in the area.

It was also agreed that if anything looked even a half decent prospect, Maxine would join them to view the property before any offer was made. The whole issue of cashflow was foremost in everyone’s mind. The availability of funds and the timing of any sale and purchase would have to be managed.

After an early Lunch, Adrian drove them southwest from Carcassonne towards their rendezvous in the village of Ascou. There wasn’t a lot to the village but there was a ‘Bureau de Poste’ which was where they were due to be met by a person or person’s as yet unknown.

Once they were at the agreed place, Maxine made a call to the number that Garth had supplied. She was slightly nervous as she’d be terrible when it came to learning French at School.

To her surprise, the person who answered the call had a perfect British accent. She’d been expecting either Garth or someone with a French accent to answer. This had thrown her briefly but she managed to grasp what they needed to do. Once she was clear, she returned to the car.

Adrian looked at her anxiously.

“We are to take this road for twenty point four kilometres and someone will be standing by the side of the road. I told them what car we were driving. The person that we are meeting will direct us to the farm where Garth is staying.”

“A farm?” remarked Adrian.
“Oh well. I guess it must be like back home for him then.”

Both of them were slightly anxious by the time the odometer clicked over to twenty kilometres. They needed not have worried as almost immediately, they saw a woman standing by the side of the road. Adrian slowed down and stopped by the woman.

Maxine let out a gasp when she saw who it was.

There was no time for her to explain to Adrian that she’d recognised the woman.

“Bonjour!” she exclaimed.
“You found us then? Bon!”
“Can I get in? We have about one kilometre to go.”

Maxine reached over and opened the door behind Adrian. The woman got in.

“Voilia! Please drive up the track opposite.”

Without a word, Adrian started up the track.

“Do not worry about the surface. It is not that bad.”

Adrian shot a glance over at Maxine and rolled his eyes.

The track passed through some woodland and came out into a Valley. Two farmhouses were ahead of them.

“That is where we are going,” said the woman pointing at the one that was slightly farther away than the other.

Adrian parked in front of the designated building. Maxine got out and literally ran around to the other side of the car and embraced the woman.

After a typical ‘French’ greeting, the pair separated. A slightly bewildered Adrian was looking on.

“Adrian Forsythe, meet Natalie Dechamps. Natalie was a former supermodel.”

“Natalie, please meet Adrian my erstwhile boss and partner in crime.”

Both of them laughed.

“Welcome to our little part of heaven on earth. Please come on inside. Everyone is waiting for us.”

Both Adrian and Maxine were a bit puzzled by the use of the word ‘everyone’ but they followed Natalie inside the building.

Garth was waiting inside. He had a huge grin on his face.

“I’m so glad you could make it. I want to introduce you to some friends of mine.”

Maxine knew at least two of them from their past but Adrian was never much of a TV watcher. The expression on his face told her that he was feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“You’ve already met Natalie of course. It is wasn’t for her then I would not be here today.”

Then he turned to the other two women.

“This is Helene Harris and her wife Isabelle.”

The name obviously meant something to Adrian.

“Oh! I loved your Spoof on James Bond.”

Helene smiled and gave Adrian a light kiss on both cheeks.

His face went red. Adrian was not used to all this attention.

Garth laughed.

“Isabelle will show you to your room. If you want to get freshened up then dinner will be at seven,” said Helene.
“I’m a bit of a crock at the moment.”

She looked down and both of them could see that her foot was encased in plaster.
“I came off my bicycle ok!”
“I rode around Cambridge for years and survived the council designed pothole course and here, I came off after I hit a cow pat! Oh, the ignominy!”

Everyone had a good laugh at her misfortune.

---

Once they were in their room, Adrian asked in almost a whisper.
“Why didn’t you tell me who was meeting us?”

“I didn’t know until we pulled up for her to get in the back.”
“I’m mystified how Garth came to know her and Helene?”

“Patience my dear,” said Maxine.
“We may well find out tonight. You should know by now that Garth does nothing without a reason. Perhaps he has decided to come over to the ‘dark side’ and wants to be called Gail from now on?”

Adrian glared at Maxine for half a second before he saw the funny side of what she’d said.

“Why can’t I be angry at you for more than a few seconds?”

“Perhaps my dear, it is because I’m so lovable.”

The inevitable question of what to wear for the evening raised its head a little later.

“Just wear what you wore last night?” suggested Adrian.

Maxine glared at him.
“You really don’t have a clue, do you?”

He got the message and shut up.

Luckily, Maxine had one outfit with her that had not been worn on the trip so she made do with that. She did put her foot down at Adrian when he began to put on a suit and tie. He wore both every day. Maxine often wondered if he’d been born wearing a suit such was his attachment to the beastly things. She’d even considered taking a pair of scissors to all of his collection several hundred ties on more than one occasion but so far, she’d held back from that particular show of rebellion.

---

Dinner was a very relaxed affair. Natalie was joined by her husband, Jean-Claude. He’d put their two children to bed and had the child monitor on the table beside him. He hardly said anything during dinner but it was obvious to Maxine that Natalie was totally devoted to him.

At the end of Dinner, Garth tapped his wine glass with a spare knife.

“I want to thank Isabelle and Helene for giving us such a lovely meal.”

No one disagreed and a toast was made to the couple.

“Most of you will be wondering why I’m here and why you are here? Oui?” said Garth.

“I hope you are not going to try to speak French Garth?” asked Isabelle.

“No, my dear lady I am not. ‘Oui’ and ‘Non’ are about it when it comes to French and me I’m happy to say. No, I arranged for this evening because all of you and that includes you Jean-Claude, so no sloping off and I know that your English has improved a huge amount since we first met so please sit down and listen ok?”

Everyone turned to look at Jean-Claude who was on the verge of leaving and by the way he was caressing his pipe, going outside for a smoke.

He relaxed and put the pipe down on the table. He gave a slight nod of the head.

“As I was about to say, meeting Natalie and Jean-Claude in LA at the Oscars ceremony was one of those days that I’ll remember forever. My late wife was with me and she recognised Natalie when we took our seats in the row behind her, Jean-Claude, Isabelle and Helene. I was only there because my wife persuaded me that investing in a film was a good thing to do. All I know is that it lost me a lot of money but it made my wife very happy so it was lost in a good cause. You may not know it but she was very ill at the time of the Oscars with Stage Five Bowel Cancer. She died just over a month later but she was still talking about how brave Helene was to come out like that right up until a few hours before she died.”

Garth paused and took another sip of wine.

“The chaos that Helene’s reveal caused at the event has gone down in history but I could see several nasty pieces of work… aka Journalists heading for Natalie. My wife and I took Natalie and we got her out of the event and into my Limo. Several of those hacks were getting really nasty in their attempts to get a statement from her. I dealt with them. To be honest, it gave me a lot of pleasure sticking one on them for a change.”

Everyone laughed.

“We gave Natalie a lift to the Airport but during the journey, she didn’t say much but nothing really needed to be said. I gave her my card and told her to give me a call when the heat had died down a bit.”

“However, the events of that night got me thinking. My late wife noticed this as well. If I look back on that day, it was the first of a series of events that may well change my life.”

Garth had everyone’s attention.

He turned to Adrian and Maxine.

“The next event of note was meeting Adrian and Maxine. What brought us together is far too messy to explain here but I saw in them a lot of what I had been when I first started in business. Then I went astray. Looking back at it, it was no surprise. It was very much a case of eat or be eaten. Very much, ‘do unto others before they do you in’ was the order of the day. I found that I was rather good at this game. After one failed marriage and much better one to a wonderful woman and forty odd years later and I’m stinking rich, own fifty-two companies outright but something was missing.”

He looked around at everyone. He had the audience in his hand.

“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have an epiphany and wake up one morning and decide to right the wrongs I have done. No sir, it was more of a gradual dawning that there was another way. That was cemented when I came here for the first time earlier this year and met Helene and everyone else. Even Jean-Claude gave me time and his honesty which I shall forever be in his debt. The result was that I learned several things about myself from him.”

Jean-Claude looked rather embarrassed.

“I have decided that it is time to slow down. I don’t intend to be another Rupert Murdoch and still be trying to expand my empire in my late eighties. I want to enjoy life a bit. What I’m proposing is not going to happen overnight. I think everyone can imagine what would happen if I started disposing the of companies I control overnight but I will not be looking to add any more to my portfolio unless I have sold at least two already. Even doing what I propose will take time. The last thing I want to do is sell any of my companies to Vulture Capitalists. That is a disaster waiting to happen in my opinion. My modus operandi all along has been to rescue companies and make them profitable without loading them with debt. I have been brutal at times in the past which is where my reputation comes from but now I know that there is another way to make money that does not make as many waves as I have often done in the past. It does not mean that I’m going soft in my old age but think of it as refocussing my efforts in a slightly different direction.”

He took another sip of wine.

“Now… onto other matters.”

“Natalie, I know that you have a book about to hit the streets but I’d like to arrange for you to come to Long Island just before your next one is published and do a reading for some people in the area. They were all friends of my late wife and I’ll donate all the money and a lot more besides to a local Hospice. It will also give you a chance to check up on progress of my new grand plan.”

Then he turned to face Adrian and Maxine.

“Don’t think that you have seen the last of me in the UK. The recent bit of business that I did there has whetted my appetite for the country. People there in the main, do not know about me and my reputation unlike back home so it might be that I settle there at some point in the future. I don’t know yet but it is on my wish list. I just need a reason to move there.”

“I’ve just about had my say. May I suggest that we sleep on this and if you have questions we can talk about them in the morning. There are many that simply don’t have answers at the moment but that’s all right. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

“One last thing, Adrian, if you could give me a lift to Toulouse tomorrow? One trip in Helene’s decidedly ancient Land Rover was one trip too many. I’ll call my pilot tomorrow morning to come and fetch me. He’s in Galway visiting some family. He’ll fly me back there tomorrow and then hop over the Atlantic to Long Island the next day.”

Then he raised his glass.

“I want to toast all of you and say thank you from the bottom of my heart. And Jean-Claude, you can go and smoke your pipe now!”

Everyone laughed including Jean-Claude.

---

Both Maxine and Adrian didn’t say much when they went to their room.

Eventually, Maxine said,
“Ok, out with it? I can tell when you want to say something but don’t want to offend anyone. It is only me here remember!”

Adrian looked at Maxine and smiled.

“You can read me like a book, can’t you?”

“Yes, I can. I can’t do it with everyone but I can with you but don’t worry my love, what I know stays with me.”

“Are you going to go and work for Garth?”

Maxine laughed.

“No, I’m not going to go and work for him tomorrow, the next day or any day after that. The answer will still be no! That does not preclude me from working with him but I am not going to work for him. I do know the difference.”

Adrian appeared relieved.

[to be continued]

[Authors Note]
Helene, Natalie and their families appear in ‘Promises can sometimes get you into trouble’.
Garth Sansom, will play a major role in a tale of mine called “What Story”. Maxine will play a small part in that story as well.