Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [122]
The men around the table suddenly looked at her with new respect—they had heard of the L. T. Francis Company and knew it was sound.
“Congratulations, madame,” the Frenchman said, “you are a clever woman to be so successful in the face of so much competition.”
“I must confess that I have very good advice.” She glanced around the table with a faint smile and added, “From a man.”
They all laughed and she pushed back her chair and wished them good night. “It was a delightful dinner, gentlemen,” she said, smiling. “I enjoyed your company.” And picking up her little blue silk evening purse, she bestowed another dazzling smile on them and swept from the room, leaving a hint of jasmine perfume scenting the air.
Edward Stratton watched her go. If he had been the Frenchman he would have said it was a coup de foudre, but in his own language he was bowled over. He was madly in love with Mrs. Francesca Harrison.
Edward Stratton had been a devoted husband. After his wife died he had grieved for more than two years, sequestering himself at his Scottish castle with his memories of their youthful love, and their growing years with their young family. Their life together had been a peaceful one where season followed season, each with its predictable round of social events with the same faces they had known since childhood. He had thought their lives would progress on the same happy, even keel as he and Mary grew old together and welcomed their own grandchildren to Strattons, just the way his grandparents had welcomed him. Nothing much had changed in the Stratton family for centuries; life had always been this way: secure, predictable, and uneventful. And that’s why Francesca Harrison had knocked him all of a heap.
Sitting alone at the bar after dinner, four weeks out into the voyage, he asked himself, Why? Of course, she was beautiful with that blond, simple, almost classical beauty that overwhelmed him every time he looked at her. And she was unpredictable, one moment shy and insecure, and the next a confident businesswoman. She was a lady, a widow, and a mother, yet she had the innocence of a young girl. And she was a mystery; she seemed to tell him everything and yet when he analyzed it later she had told him nothing but the barest facts about herself and her life. She was beautiful, elusive, and independent. And all those elements added up to the fact that Francesca was different.
Edward was a seasoned traveler; he had been around the world many times, he had sailed on great liners and on private yachts and he knew all about the dangers of shipboard romance. He thought of his three children; he was a loving and devoted father and their welfare had always been his most important concern. However much he loved someone he would never remarry without their approval. They came first, that was the way it had always been in the Stratton family.
He smiled as he drained his glass of whiskey, gazing out at the twinkling stars and the crescent moon, imagining it shining down on the gray stone-turreted Stratton Castle, more than seven thousand miles away. How could his children not love Francie as much as he did?
There was just one more week left of the voyage and he meant to spend as much time as possible with her. He had already offered to show her Hong Kong, but she had been in one of her more elusive moods and had put him off. He thought about that, puzzled, because he could swear she was as attracted to him as he was to her.
He lay awake for a long time that night, wondering what was wrong. Finally he decided it was because she had this newfangled idea of being a businesswoman. Probably her late husband’s partners did the real work, and if not, once they were married he would find her a good manager to take care of things so she would be free to devote her time to him and the children and Strattons.
Francie was also lying awake, thinking of Edward. The stateroom was in darkness and the smell of the fresh flowers put there that morning by the steward