Chapter 13

She was gone when George got up. At 9 he was dressed, had eaten his breakfast and felt restless. He was channel-surfing on the TV when his cell phone rang. It was Michael. "Mr. Hamsun, George I mean," he started, "Christopher was wondering if you could come over for a three-part meeting."

"It depends on who the third party is Michael," George replied coolly.

"It's Keith Eberhofer," Michael replied.

"Fine!" George exclaimed. "I'll be there as soon as I can find a taxi."

The meeting was friendly. Linda Johnson was not there. Her absence was not mentioned, but it was obvious from the negotiations that Keith Eberhofer had won the argument with the top people in Texas. For most of the initial talk, only George, Christopher and Keith were present. Late morning Michael was called in to take notes and another lower ranked American was asked to check up some details. They ate lunch at the negotiating table since both George and Keith had a deadline. Around 4 they had a document both sides liked. "I will take this straight to the Board in Texas tomorrow evening your time," Keith said.

"Fine," George replied. "And I will put it before my share holders already tonight."

"Can you get hold of them that soon?" Keith asked.

"Oh yes," George said. "I am meeting them just before midnight."

Keith left highly impressed and rushed off to the airport with his contingent.

"Who are those shareholders?" Christopher asked when he and Michael were alone with George.

"My daughters," George chuckled. "They inherited their mother's shares."

Michael and Christopher were still laughing several minutes later when George left.

The two friends emerged from the tunnel at London Bridge Station. The young women were both nurses, but you couldn't tell - they were dressed up for a night out. They crossed Tooley Street. "Let's go through here," Stacey said. "We're a little bit early." She let them into The Hays Gallery with its many fancy shops.

When they emerged at the waterfront they turned right and started walking towards Tower Bridge. "This is a nice area!" Eleanor exclaimed. "Fancy being able to afford living here!"

"Just wait to you see Shad Thames," Stacey said. "It is gorgeous."

When they passed under the Tower Bridge road and entered Shad Thames, Eleanor had to agree. She was gaping at the famous walkways which criss-cross high above their heads as they walked along the street towards their new colleague's apartment. "Hannah's George must have serious money!" Eleanor said. "I knew he was spoiling her, but this is amazing."

They found the right door and were buzzed in. When they got to the apartment the door was opened by a well-kept middle aged grey-haired gentleman in a business suit. He smiled a welcoming smile. "You must be Stacey and Eleanor," he said. "Hannah has told me so much about you. I should be able to tell who is who." He turned to Stacey. "You must be Stacey; that hair colour gives you away." He shook her hand "I'm George Hamsun."

"How do you do Mr. Hamsun," Stacey said. The man's handshake was firm and confidence inspiring.

"And you must be Eleanor," George continued. "Not a very impressive deduction of course now that Stacey has been indentified, but I would have recognized you from Hannah's description anyway - the harebell blue eyes and the dimples are every bit as characteristic as Stacey's copper beaches hair."

His smile was warm and his grey eyes locked with Eleanor's as he shook her hand. "I'm so pleased to meet you Mr. Hamsun," Eleanor said, felling quite giddy. "Hannah has told us a lot about you too, you know."

"Please do call me George," George said and let go of Eleanor's hand. "I'm sure she has, and I'm sure she has been much too kind in her descriptions. But do come in. Let me take your coats."

They entered the main room and Hannah came running over from the kitchen area. "Stacey, Eleanor! Welcome. Don't you look gorgeous?"

"Hi Hannah, don't you!" Stacey replied. "And what a fabulous place you have!"

"Yes," Hannah agreed. "George is much too good to me."

"I've never been in this part of town before," Eleanor said. "I didn't even know this street existed."

"Well, it does," Hannah said. "And I defy anyone to find a nicer place to live in London."

She gave her friends a quick tour of the apartment while George got out the pre-dinner drinks.

The dinner was very pleasant. George was at his most charming, most urbane mood and Hannah's friends were more than able to understand her infatuation. They noted that Hannah and George had shared the cooking, and they were smitten by his old-fashioned table manners - he would invariably stand up if either of the young women did. He asked them about their work and told them about his family in Oslo and especially his young son.

Much too soon it was approaching 9PM and George excused himself; he had to leave in order to catch his plane. He politely shook Stacey's and Eleanor's hands, declared himself delighted at having made their acquaintance and kissed Hannah before leaving.

When George had left, Stacey and Eleanor put Hannah through a gentle 3rd degree.

"Gosh, he is gorgeous, isn't he?" Eleanor exclaimed.

"George?" Hannah said. "Oh yeah. When I was a little girl I wanted to be married to him!"

"And you don't now? I mean now that he is a widower and available as it were!" Stacey asked.

"I don't know that he is. He is as sweet to me as ever though," Hannah replied.

"Has he ever, you know, come on to you?" Stacey asked.

"Oh no, he is much too much of a gentleman to do that!" Hannah said. She didn't tell them about her provocations. "He is always correct to a fault."

Stacey detected the regret in Hannah's voice and simply had to ask "What would you do if he did?"

Hannah smiled - she thought she heard a noise in the hall and on the pretext of fetching something in the kitchen area, she spoke quite loudly. "That's simple," she replied to her friend's question. "If George ever made a pass at me then I would spread my legs like a good girl and have his babies."