Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [226]
“Yes?”
She hesitated, the phone clutched to her ear. “Oh, nothing. Except, I just wondered if you ever knew just how much Lai Tsin loved you …?”
“He loved me like his own son, I know that.”
His voice was calm, without any underlying meanings, and she said quickly, “Well, I just want you to know I love you, too, Philip. And I want to thank you … for everything.”
“Good luck, little one,” he said quietly. “Our thoughts will be with you. I’ll do what I can to guide the company until you appoint a successor.”
She sat for a while staring into space thinking of Philip, and Lai Tsin and Harmon Harrison. Then she shook herself back to reality and made a few calls to the important men who helped run the company. And then she called Robert.
He laughed when she told him. “You should have gone with him when he asked you, I told you that.”
“Robert, do you think maybe I’m too late? Will he have fallen out of love with me by now?”
“No chance. Any man who falls for you is in for a life sentence.”
“I hope you’re right.”
There was a silence and then he said abruptly, “I’ve got to rush, I was supposed to be at the hospital fifteen minutes ago. Good luck, Lysandra.”
“I’ll be in touch,” she said a little wistfully, as she put down the phone again, feeling as though she was cutting off a whole part of her life.
She glanced at her watch as she gave the operator the number at the ranch; it was three in the afternoon in California. Buck answered and his cheery familiar voice suddenly brought a lump to her throat.
“How are you, baby?” he demanded. “Everything okay?”
“Oh, Buck, I’m in love,” she said with a sob.
“Are you gonna cry about it?”
She sniffed. “No—no, I’m just happy, that’s all.”
“It’s Matt, I hope?”
“Yes.”
“Well, honey, he’s a great guy, an individual; you surely won’t have a run-of-the-mill routine life with a man like Matt.”
“Then you approve?”
He laughed, “If I have to—and you promise to invite us to the wedding this time.”
Lysandra felt herself blushing, “I turned him down the first time … I may have to ask him.”
His laugh boomed down the line again. “You always were a girl who went after what she wanted. Good luck, baby, and remember, take care of yourself.”
Francie got on the line and Lysandra caught her silent anxious vibrations across the thousands of miles of crackling cable and ocean as she told her her decision. “I guess I’ve always been looking for what you and Buck have, Mom,” she said, “and this time I think I’ve found it. I just had to find out the hard way that love demands a lot from you. It has to come first.”
Listening, Francie gazed abstractedly at the view through the open doors leading to the courtyard. She could see a pair of horses running in the paddock and the hillsides with their neat rows of vines interspersed with roses. The turbulence of her earlier life seemed light years away from the happiness and tranquillity of the present. She ran her hand worriedly through her hair, trying not to think of the disaster with Pierre. Matt was different, she knew that, and despite his itinerant lifestyle there was something solid about him. He’d been strong enough to walk out on Lysandra when she had been determined to call the tune, and she had given him credit for that because she knew how much he loved her. Still, she hoped he was the right one. “How can you be sure?” she asked.
“Oh, Mom.” Lysandra’s voice held amusement. “How can you, of all people, ask me that? How did you and Buck know? Pierre flattered me into believing I was in love. But Matt is reality—for better, for worse. Besides, I opened the Mandarin’s letter.” She paused. “Mom, did you know what was in it?”
Francie sighed. “Yes, I knew. He took me to his old village and showed me the Temple of Lilin. But I gave my word to respect his secret—all his secrets—Lysandra, and I couldn’t tell even you.”
“Oh, Mom, he was so brave. He sacrificed so much and bequeathed us more than just his success and wealth. He