Family Man

Katy added silently.
    Justine's expression was speculative for a moment before it faded back into one of grim resignation. Katy shook her head wryly. They both knew the topic of putting her in charge of Gilchrist, Inc. was moot. Justine would never turn the company over to anyone outside the family.
    “I suppose if worse comes to worst, I'll have to consider Darren as a successor. But he simply is not ready for that kind of responsibility.” Justine's mouth hardened. “In the meantime, I will never consent to selling off what I created from scratch with my own bare hands.”
    “All right. What about going public with a stock offering? We could raise capital that way. Hire outside management. Get in a good consulting firm. Just on a temporary basis.”
    Justine's eyes glittered. “ No . This is my company. I am not about to turn it over to paid consultants with no sense of history and tradition. This is a family business, and it will stay a family business.”
    Katy stared helplessly at her employer. “I understand, Justine, but times have changed. You can't run it like a family business any longer. You haven't got a member of the family who is capable of taking your place. At least not yet. Maybe, as you say, your other grandson, Darren, will be able to do it in time. But I agree he's not quite ready.”
    “Sometimes I think Darren will never be ready to step into my shoes no matter how old he gets,” Justine snapped.
    “That's not entirely fair, Justine. You must admit he's doing very well managing the new restaurant on Lake Union.”
    “I'm still not certain I should have let you talk me into giving him that position,” Justine grumbled.
    “It will be a learning experience for him. Darren wants to be part of the business,” Katy said gently.
    “Oh, he's ambitious enough, I'll grant you that, but he hasn't got the flair to run an operation the size of Gilchrist.” Her mouth twisted bitterly. “Hardly surprising, since his father didn't have it either. My own fault, I suppose. I was a fool to let Hayden dabble with those art lessons when he was a child.”
    The fact that Justine's second son, Hayden, had been drawn to the art world rather than the world of business had never set well with his mother. Justine had no respect for Hayden's talents, and she made no secret of it.
    Unfortunately, in the past few years Justine had come to the conclusion that neither of Hayden's offspring, Darren nor Eden, had inherited her business genius either. Her lack of faith in her two youngest grandchildren had become an ongoing source of friction in the family.
    “Justine, there isn't anyone else to take your place,” Katy said, exasperated.
    “Luke is fully capable of running Gilchrist.”
    “Well, he doesn't want the job,” Katy reminded her gently. “So where does that leave us? There is no one else in the family who can handle it.”
    Justine gave her a grim smile. “We shall see. I want to think about this problem a bit longer before I make any drastic decisions. There must be a solution.”
    Katy drew herself up. “There are solutions, but none of them involves that arrogant, mule-headed grandson of yours. I'll be in my office. Let me know when you want to talk about the future.”
    The fog was at the glass walls of the living room now, shrouding the mansion. Katy walked out of Justine's private suite and into the main hall of the huge house.
    She worked off some of her frustration by taking the stairs to the second floor two at a time. At the top of the staircase she turned and strode down the corridor of the mansion's south wing.
    The main corporate headquarters of Gilchrist, Inc. were an hour's drive away in downtown Seattle. For the past ten years, however, Justine had ruled her empire from her castle overlooking Dragon Bay. She had until recently made frequent trips into the city, however, so that her management team was assured of close contact. Those visits, along with her fax machines, computers, and telephones, had made it possible for Justine to keep her thumb on the pulse of her kingdom.
    But when Justine had begun to retreat from the day-to-day task of running the company, the geographical distance between Dragon Bay and downtown Seattle had seemed to grow. Katy had done her best to conceal Justine's gradual withdrawal from daily operations, but things had gotten to the shaky stage. She could no longer keep giving management excuses for Justine's failure to show her face at headquarters, nor