The Villa

bleeding at the pruning cuts.
    An early break meant the danger of frost damage.
    He was prepared to deal with that, when the time came, but…
    "I see we're keeping Tyler awake," Sophia said sweetly, and snapped him back.
    "No, you're not. But since you interrupted my nap, the second phase deals with public participation. Wine tastings, vineyard tours, social events, auctions, galas—both here and in Italy—which generate publicity."
    He rose to get more coffee from the cart. "Sophia knows what she's doing. I don't think anyone here's going to argue that."
    "And in the fields?" Tereza asked. "Does Sophia know what she's doing?"
    He took his time, sipped his coffee. "She's all right, for an apprentice field hand."
    "Please, Ty, you'll embarrass me with all those fulsome compliments."
    "Very well," Tereza murmured. "David? Comments on the campaign?"
    "Clever, classy, thorough. My only concern, as a father of teenagers, is that the ads targeting the twenty-one to thirty market make wine look like a hell of a good time."
    "Which it is," Sophia pointed out.
    "And which we want to project it to be," he agreed. "But I'm wary about making the ads so slick and appealing to a young audience that those still too young will be influenced. That's the father talking," he admitted. "But I was also a boy who if and when I wanted to drink myself sick, did so without any marketing influence whatsoever."
    Pilar made a little sound, then subsided. But as David sat beside her, had made certain he sat beside her, he heard it. "Pilar? Thoughts?"
    "No, I was just… well, actually, I think the campaign's wonderful, and I know how hard Sophie's worked on it—and Ty, of course, and her team. But I think David has a valid point about this, well, third prong. It's difficult to market something that appeals to the young market group without luring the inappropriate ages in. If we could do some sort of disclaimer…"
    "Disclaimers are boring and dilute the message," Sophia began, but she pursed her lips as she sat again. "Unless we make it fun, witty, responsible and something that blends with the message. Let me think about it."
    "Good. Now, Paulie."
    Now it was Sophia who tuned out while the foreman spoke of the vines, of various vintages being tested in the casks and tanks.
    Age, she thought. Age. Vintage. Ripeness. Perfection. She needed the hook. Patience. Good wine takes patience to make. Rewards. Age, rewards, patience. She'd find it.
    Her fingers itched to get out her pen and scribble. She worked better if she set words down, saw them on paper. She got up for more coffee and, with her back to the room, scrawled quickly on a napkin.
    Paulie was excused and David called up. Instead of the marketing projections, the cost analyses, the forecasts and numbers Sophia had expected, her grandmother set his written report aside.
    "We'll deal with this later. At the moment I'd like your evaluation of our key people here."
    "You have my written reports on that as well, La Signora ."
    "I do," she agreed, and simply lifted her eyebrows.
    "All right. Tyler doesn't need me in the vineyards, and he knows it. The fact that it's my job to oversee them and I'm another competent pair of hands hasn't yet taken the edge off his resistance. A resistance I can't blame him for, but that does get in the way of efficiency. Other than that, the MacMillan vineyards are as well run as any I've ever been associated with. As are Giambelli's. Adjustments are still being made, but his work on merging the operations, coordinating crews is excellent.
    "Sophia does well enough in the vineyard, though it's not her strength. Just as the marketing and promotion isn't Tyler's. The fact that she carries the weight there, as he does in the field, results in a reasonably good and surprisingly interesting blend. However, there are some difficulties in the offices in San Francisco."
    "I'm aware of the difficulties," Sophia said. "I'm handling them."
    "Her," David corrected. "Sophia, you have a difficult, angry, uncooperative employee who's been trying for several weeks to undermine your authority."
    "I have a meeting set up with her tomorrow afternoon. I know my people, David. I know how to deal with this."
    "Are you interested in how I know just how difficult, angry and uncooperative Kristin Drake's been?" He waited a beat. "She's been talking to other companies. Her résumé’s landed on half a dozen desks in the last two weeks. One of my sources at La Coeur tells me she's