Chapter 16

Nick held his second dinner party. The Domestic Damsels did the catering again. This time his external guests were from the county council, the two road jobs he was hoping to win: the Chief Executive and the Chief Engineer with their wives. David and Jenny Steel were the obvious internal guests. He invited Sally to even up the sexes. It turned out that David and the Chief Engineer had been to the same school, Merchant Taylors Crosby, admittedly not at the same time but the connection helped enormously. The Chief Executive was obviously very taken with Jenny Steel. Nick was delighted.

Sally was thrilled to be invited but also very nervous. She was not a social animal and she also felt that the other guests, apart from David and therefore Jenny, were way above her station. Nick was her salvation.

"Sally," he said taking her elbow, "I'd like you to meet Craig Miller, the county's Chief Engineer. Craig, this is Sally Gardner, my technical assistant. She's a brilliant engineer. I stand in awe of her. She's also a very talented violinist with the LPO."

Craig Miller took her hand. "Engineers are two a penny," he said smiling warmly. "A good violinist is invaluable. You must surely have met my wife, Norma. She's a cellist with the LPO."

"I ... I don't know," stammered Sally slightly overwhelmed by the warmth of her reception. "I don't really know the rest of the orchestra outside the violins but I'm sure I'd recognise her by sight."

Never letting go of her hand Craig led her over to a tiny woman in her fifties. Sally recognised her immediately. She had always been slightly surprised at this diminutive woman playing such a large instrument.

The rapport was instant and before she knew where she was she was sharing details of her life that she had never vouchsafed before. Craig had moved away and was talking animatedly with David.

"I'm so glad I've met you at last," said Norma. "I've often wondered about you because I'd see you with the other first or second strings during the breaks but you'd just be standing there like a shy little waif."

"I'm not very gregarious," said Sally.

"So why are you here this evening?"

Sally grinned. "Royal command!"

Norma laughed. "Because you are his personal technical assistant?"

"No, I think he just wanted to even up the numbers."

"Has he never married?"

"Divorced."

"Oh!" She looked quizzically at Sally. "Are you... ?"

"No!" said Sally vehemently. "He's not interested in women anymore."

"Ah," thought Norma, "but I know a little girl who's interested in him."

"How did you come to be working directly for him?"

Sally smiled ruefully. "I attacked him for not appointing me as a Project Manager and he very politely but firmly put me in my place. The trouble is I fight and he told me I would alienate clients and sub-contractors."

"Why are you like that?"

"My father's a docker and he's always got his way by fighting. I used my mouth rather than my fists. Nick is showing me how to use my ears and engage brain before mouth."

Norma laughed. "That doesn't mean you've got to be his technical assistant surely."

"Well we've got a lot of major projects due to come up and he won't have time to check the detail so I'll be doing it for him."

Norma nodded. She didn't want to get involved in a technical discussion so she switched the conversation back to music.

Sally sat at the far end of the table from Nick with the Chief Executive and Chief Engineer on either side of her. She was petrified with shyness but again Craig Miller was warm and friendly and she relaxed. She had to admit to herself that she really rather enjoyed it all.

She did the same as Helen had and helped clear and wash up after the rest of the guests had gone. She though took care not to touch hands or stand too close. It was Nick who took her hands as she was about to leave.

"Thank you, Sally," he said. "I know you're not a very social animal but you seemed to be coping very well down at the other end of the table."

She smiled up at him. "I was terrified to start with but they were both so nice to me and Norma kept chipping in so I began to enjoy myself. Thank you for inviting me."

"I may do it again. I've got to have more of these dos and I need a hostess. Would you be happy?"

She nodded, afraid her voice would come out as a squeak. Nick smiled again and gave her hands a slight squeeze. He let go of them.

"Thanks," he said.

Sally drove home happily. Nick was less happy. He should not have taken her hands. Apart from it possibly giving her the wrong message it had stirred up his wish to take her in his arms. He must never take advantage of her. He sensed that under the fire that was now dormant there was one fragile young woman.

A couple of weeks later Cliff breezed into her office. "Hi, Sally," he greeted her. "Got a few minutes?"

"Sure."

"You know we've been invited to tender for the Browning job."

"Yes."

"Well, we've put together a plan which I think will work but I've been a bit close to it. I wondered whether you'd care to give it the once over and make sure we haven't made any nonsenses."

Sally beamed with pleasure. "I'd love to," she said. "That's what I'm here for. How soon do you want it back?"

"Could you crack it in three days?"

"Yup! No problem."

"Great. If you find a mistake I buy you a drink. If there are none you buy me one."

"Not fair! Orange juice is half the price of beer."

Cliff laughed delightedly. "OK, two orange juices for you."

"Done!"

Cliff left her very pleased with himself. She had been friendly and forthcoming with him for the first time. She was jolly pretty when she smiled too.

Sally dropped everything to get on with it. She decided to look at the estimates first while her enthusiasm was high. They were the tedious bit. She spent the rest of the day and the following morning on them. She was a little concerned that the cement quantities seemed on the low side and the sand on the high so she started to do all the concrete calculations again. It did not take too long. Someone had keyed in a three in the sand ratio instead of a two and this had been carried right through the calculations. It meant that either much of the concrete would be too lean or that they would run out of cement at a crucial juncture.

She turned to the critical path and went through the whole process. She could find nothing wrong but she was uneasy. She felt that the shell of the building should be taking longer. She looked again. The pile driving looked all right and there was a bad weather contingency built in. The foundations seemed all right too. Curing time! That was it. It was two days too short for the columns ... and the beams. Someone had had finger trouble again which had carried all the way through. She looked at the ground floor. It was the same again.

Her engineering mind took over. These were bad mistakes that could affect the whole structural validity of the building with possibly appalling consequences. She began to work herself into a fury. Megan heard the growling and the spat expletives. She stuck her head round the door.

"What are you getting yourself into a tantrum about, Sally love?" she asked.

"Careless engineering which could cost our client a lot of money or kill a lot of people!" fumed Sally.

"Ooph!" said Megan. "That sounds serious."

"Too right it's serious. It's bloody criminal."

"Was it bad design or carelessness?"

"Carelessness. Appalling carelessness. Life threatening carelessness. In fact criminal bloody carelessness."