Chapter 14: Board Meeting

Henry was less than happy. He didn't see how there could be a board meeting without one of the principals present. Victoria had been adamant though. Lauren was indisposed and quite unable to join them. They were meeting in the west wing of the Kalinin's palace. It had been set aside for the household of Koreni Kalanis when he had first come of age but it was beginning to become cramped

Part of the problem was that the Kalinin's son had insisted on five wives initially, even when the most a Kushtian would normally aspire to was three and then a further five concubines had arrived. Added to which Victoria had insisted on her own extensive quarters and with the arrival of those of the Korenis household bequeathed to the Kalinin it had just got a whole lot worse. Koreni Kalanis wasn't sure what he was going to do about it. He had broached the matter with his chief wife but Victoria had not been keen for them to move away from his father's palace. "It confers status on us," she had said. "And that makes it easier for me to help you."

So, the household of Koreni Kalanis continued to occupy its cramped quarters. And, as far as the board meeting was concerned that meant he and Victoria were meeting in one corner of the great hall of the seragla, surrounded by the comings and goings of Koreni's wives, concubines and doenyes. In one way Henry didn't mind; the girls were certainly decorative enough. On the other hand it wasn't too easy to concentrate.

On the far side of the room, Koreni Kalanis was relaxing with four of his wives. His head was cradled in Emma's lap, Gerri busy with her head between his kegs as he ran his hands through her auburn hair and the two Melanie's engaged is a display of Sapphic lust for his amusement. In spite of these distractions his gaze was fixed to Victoria as she stepped into the room; her dagger like heels protruding from beneath the slim cut trousers of a grey, chalk stripe, suit. A sharp white shirt and thin black tie gave her the air of an efficient business woman but what really astounded Henry was her veil. The lower half of her face was hidden by an elaborate metal yashmak formed by interwoven golden chains and coins.

Her eyes gave Henry a piercing look over the veil. "Do we really need to do this?" she said.

Henry, unwilling to be discouraged by her impatient tone, sat silently for a moment. Apart from anything else he was enjoying the sight of Koreni's principal wife. She had managed to combine western and eastern styles in a way that spoke of both elegance and decadence, of primness and extreme sexuality. As she sat on the cushions beside him, she unbuttoned her jacket revealing a matching waistcoat that was cut to emphasise the swell of her breasts. Henry caught himself wondering for a moment if he should have been quite so reassuring to Anch. Victoria lounged back, the pointed toe of her stilt heeled shoes was placed with precision an inch or less from Henry's own foot as much as to say, "Get the answer to that wrong and you'll have very sore shins indeed." Victoria took one of the pipes from the hookah that stood between them, threading it behind the edge of her yashmak. Henry watched her chest rise as she inhaled deeply from the pipe. The stream of smoke that she let into his face was perfumed heavily with the scent of hunashif.

"Well?" she said.

"I'm sure we can wrap it up without too much difficulty," Henry said. "But I do need to give the bank confidence that their position is still protected."

Victoria turned her face towards him. Her eyes seemed piercingly blue for an instant but with another suck of the hookah pipe the hunashif seemed to soften her attitudes. "Hmmm? Well, let me reassure you if I can."

She moved a little closer to him but, engaged as Henry was, he was unwilling to be diverted.

"Perhaps you could summarise the position with the business. Especially since the demise of Mr Koresh."

Victoria sighed, took another suck on her pipe and began. "We have completed the first round of recruitment and met the requirements for our initial clients. We have, of course, a little work to do in providing our new recruits with the introduction needed as potential Kushtian wives..."

"A sort of finishing school?"

"Hmm? Mmmm." Victoria nodded.

"The costs were included in the business plan?"

"Mmm," Victoria nodded again.

Henry was happy. This was just the sort of detail that Mr Kerrish would want. "So, no difficulties so far then?"

Victoria batted her eyelids at Henry. "No, nothing significant," she said.

Henry was beginning to understand why the bank didn't make loans to women. It was almost impossible to tell what Victoria was thinking behind the yashmak. The coins and chains danced mesmerically in the light of the seragla and her blue, kohl rimmed eyes told Henry very little more than Victoria was saying. Even so, he wasn't going to let that go. "Significant?" Henry pressed, latching on to the one remark that seemed to offer an opening.

"One of the girls is not yet convinced that her original interest was correct," Victoria's assessment of Natalya's state of mind rather understated her views, she would have thought. "But all will be well. The client concerned is happy for us to make sure that she is completely happy with the idea before the two are joined together. Apart from that we have been able to bank the first tranche of payments from our clients as no doubt you have seen. We adopted, you will recall, a phased payment system and our clients have been happy to go along with that."

Henry knew. He had ticked off the payments from the bank account statement. "It has certainly made sure that cash flow has met plan," Henry said. "That is helping me to ensure that the bank is able to continue its support." If there was only one drop out in this first round, Henry thought, the business will have done surprisingly well. He had half expected the thing to be a complete fiasco.

He looked up to see that Victoria had loosened off her tie and unfastened her blouse to the point where it met with her waistcoat. The dark shadow of her cleavage seemed to draw his eyes magnetically as she took another puff on the hookah and stretched languorously. "Is that what we need to discuss? Hmmm?" Victoria asked. "Can we have done with business?"

In spite of the allure of Victoria's décolletage and the sparkle of her eyes over the yaskmak, Henry was determined not to be distracted. "One more thing," he said. "We need to regularise Lauren's position, I think. Now that the shareholding of Mr Koresh has passed into the hands of Mr Kalanis, he is the sole shareholder for the business. Lauren was Mr Koresh's nominee; you Mr Kalanis's. The bank needs to know what is intended for the future. My feeling was that Lauren's contribution to the operational side of the business was as important as your own, Mrs Kalanis." Henry felt that reintroducing some formality would help return the discussion to a professional level. "Will Lauren continue to be involved in the business in some way."