Master of the Game

Just as Jamie and Margaret McGregor would have wanted it.

Chapter 16

BOOK THREE

Kruger-Brent, Ltd.

1914-1945

Chapter 16

They were in the library, where Jamie had once liked to sit with his brandy glass in front of him. David was arguing that there was no time for a real honeymoon. "Someone has to mind the store, Kate."

"Yes, Mr. Blackwell. But who’s going to mind me?" She curled up in David’s lap, and he felt the warmth of her through her thin dress. The documents he had been reading fell to the floor. Her arms were around him, and he felt her hands sliding down his body. She pressed her hips against him, making slow, small circles, and the papers on the floor were forgotten. She felt him respond, and she rose and slipped out of her dress. David watched her, marveling at her loveliness. How could he have been so blind for so long? She was undressing him now, and there was a sudden urgency in him. They were both naked, and their bodies were pressed together. He stroked her, his fingers lightly touching her face and her neck, down to the swell of her breasts. She was moaning, and his hands moved down until he felt the velvety softness between her legs. His fingers stroked her and she whispered, "Take me, David," and they were on the deep, soft rug and she felt the strength of his body on top of her. There was a long, sweet thrust and he was inside her, filling her, and she moved to his rhythm. It became a great tidal wave, sweeping her up higher and higher until she thought she could not bear the ecstasy of it. There was a sudden, glorious explosion deep inside her and another and another, and she thought, I’ve died and gone to heaven.

They traveled all over the world, to Paris and Zurich and Sydney and New York, taking care of company business, but wherever they went they carved out moments of time for themselves. They talked late into the night and made love and explored each other’s minds and bodies. Kate was an inexhaustible delight to David. She would awaken him in the morning to make wild and pagan love to him, and a few hours later she would be at his side at a business conference, making more sense than anyone else there. She had a natural flair for business that was as rare as it was unexpected. Women were few in the top echelons of the business world. In the beginning Kate was treated with a tolerant condescension, but the attitude quickly changed to a wary respect. Kate took a delight in the maneuvering and machinations of the game. David watched her outwit men with much greater experience. She had the instincts of a winner. She knew what she wanted and how to get it. Power.

They ended their honeymoon with a glorious week in Cedar Hill House at Dark Harbor.

It was on June 28, 1914, that the first talk of war was heard. Kate and David were guests at a country estate in Sussex. It was the age of country-house living and weekend guests were expected to conform to a ritual. Men dressed for breakfast, changed for midmorning lounging, changed for lunch, changed for tea – to a velvet jacket with satin piping – and changed to a formal jacket for dinner.

"For God’s sake," David protested to Kate. "I feel like a damned peacock."

"You’re a very handsome peacock, my darling," Kate assured him. "When you get home, you can walk around naked."

He took her in his arms. "I can’t wait."

At dinner, the news came that Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, had been slain by an assassin.

Their host, Lord Maney, said, "Nasty business, shooting a woman, what? But no one is going to war over some little Balkan country."

And the conversation moved on to cricket.

Later in bed, Kate said, "Do you think there’s going to be a war, David?"

"Over some minor archduke being assassinated? No."

It proved to be a bad guess. Austria-Hungary, suspecting that its neighbor, Serbia, had instigated the plot to assassinate Ferdinand, declared war on Serbia, and by October, most of the world’s major powers were at war. It was a new kind of warfare. For the first time, mechanized vehicles were used – airplanes, airships and submarines.

The day Germany declared war, Kate said, "This can be a wonderful opportunity for us, David."

David frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Nations are going to need guns and ammunition and – "

"They’re not getting them from us," David interrupted firmly. "We have enough business, Kate. We don’t have to make profits from anyone’s blood."

"Aren’t you being a bit dramatic? Someone has to make guns."

"As long as I’m with this company, it won’t be us. We won’t discuss it again, Kate. The subject is closed."

And Kate thought, The bloody hell it is. For the first time in their marriage, they slept apart. Kate thought, How can David be such an idealistic ninny?

And David thought, How can she be so cold-blooded? The business has changed her. The days that followed were miserable for both of them. David regretted the emotional chasm between them, but he did not know how to bridge it. Kate was too proud and headstrong to give in to him because she knew she was right.

President Woodrow Wilson had promised to keep the United States out of the war, but as German submarines began torpedoing unarmed passenger ships, and stories of German atrocities spread, pressure began to build up for America to help the Allies. "Make the world safe for democracy," was the slogan.

David had learned to fly in the bush country of South Africa, and when the Lafayette Escadrille was formed in France with American pilots, David went to Kate. "I’ve got to enlist."

She was appalled. "No! It’s not your war!"

"It’s going to be," David said quietly. "The United States can’t stay out. I’m an American. I want to help now."