Chapter 44

Life returned to normal. Ellie moved to Scargill Farm and Geraldine had to find someone else to rent the Grimshaws' cottage. That took some time but she and Nigel were unworried. It was not as though they had been getting the full rent from Ellie.

Ellie kept her jobs but did not look for any more. Reg was happy to accompany her to The Angel and was fully occupied during the day although he did tend to drift back to the house quite often when she was at home.

Nick was disappointed with Head Office. There seemed to be no progress on getting in on national projects. He talked to Trevor about it in the margins of a Board Meeting.

"I'm getting nowhere," confessed Trevor ruefully. "I've talked to our MP but, while he professed support, he is very much a back-bencher with little or no influence. The neighbouring ones are much the same."

"What about The Board?" asked Nick. "Sir Arthur was a junior minister and so was David Rowbotham."

"Busted flushes. A lot of waffle about not wanting to abuse their position. Plain bloody idle if you ask me."

"Can't Sir Edwin replace them?"

"He won't, Nick. They're all old friends. They stand again when their time expires and the shareholders re-elect them because Sir Edwin, who they worship, tells them to."

Nick said nothing. He was going to ring round the other Area Managers and see if they had influential MPs including his own.

Sally came back one afternoon from one of her routine pre-natal checks and went straight in to see Nick.

"Fasten your seatbelt," she said. "We're going to have twins."

Nick was speechless but his face lit up. He took her face in his hands and kissed her. "Clever girl," he said softly.

Sally grinned at him. "Two for the price of one. It's my natural thriftiness."

Nick laughed with her. "Did they say anything about sex?"

Sally looked at him wide-eyed. "I'm a respectable married woman."

"Pu-uss!" said Nick warningly.

"And they didn't say anything about us stopping yet."

"Pu-uss!"

Sally could not contain herself any longer and snorting with laughter flung her arms round Nick. He smacked her bottom gently.

"You are a wicked, wicked wench."

"Yes, sir," followed by another explosion of laughter.

She looked up at him. "They think," she said, "but only think at the moment that it's a boy and a girl."

"Wonderful! You really are a clever girl."

She nodded happily.

"Golly!" Nick went on. "A little tiddler like you with twins." Then a thought struck him. "Are you going to be all right, my Puss?"

"I don't see why not. The hospital didn't seem worried one bit. Mind you, I shall probably waddle like crazy and get tired pretty easily."

"And I shall look after you, my precious darling."

"I know you will, my Nick. I know you will."

Nick did ring round the other Area Managers. They all agreed to see what they could do. He was horrified to find thirty-four parliamentary constituencies in Liverpool Area. He winnowed that down to two MPs who held a government office. The trouble was that one was in Education and the other in Defence, not a lot of direct help. Nevertheless he wrote to both being totally frank as to his purpose. Both replied saying that they endorsed his ideas and that they would keep their ears open for any opportunities. Thereafter there was silence.

At a subsequent Board Meeting Sir Edwin announced that he planned to stand down as Chairman and that his son, Geoffrey, would succeed him. He pulled Nick aside afterwards.

"I would like to visit each area to say goodbye and to introduce Geoffrey," he said.

"That sounds a great idea, sir."

"The thing is I know Geoffrey will run things rather differently from me. He is not an engineer so he will be concentrating almost entirely on the financial aspects of the business and relying on Trevor and the Area Managers to keep the engineering aspects going. I hope, Nick, that you will play a leading role in that."

"I'll do my best, sir."

"I'm sure you will. I'd like to make Liverpool our first port of call and then the other area managers can base their programmes on yours."

"Fine, sir. From what you've said you won't want to visit sites."

"No."

"In that case, I suggest that the four of you fly up in time for a light, informal lunch with Sally and me. Sally can then take Diana and Felicity home for a quiet afternoon while we three walk round the office for you to say goodbye and for Geoffrey to meet people. Then in the evening we'll get the Damsels to do a buffet supper and invite all the managers and their wives. They're really the people you will want to say goodbye to and Geoffrey to meet. You all stay the night of course and then fly home after a leisurely breakfast. I'd normally offer more for Diana and Felicity but Sally will be seven months or so pregnant and I don't want to tire her."

"Are you sure she'll be able to cope with that?"

"I think so, sir. If she starts to get tired she can just quietly fall out."

"Well, that sounds fine to me. I'll get my Janet to give your nice Megan a ring to fix a date."

"Great. We'll be sad to see you go though, sir."

"It won't be the end of us though, Nick. Diana will make sure of that. She's very fond of Sally as am I."

The visit was a very informal affair but went well. Nick managed to get his head together with Geoffrey who was surprisingly forthcoming.

"I've met all the other members of The Board at some time or another. They're all nice enough old buffers but there's no spark there at all. Apart from you and Trevor I shall not be supporting their re-election when they're due. We need to bring in some younger go-getters."

"I rather agree," replied Nick with a slight smile.

"Good! I shall also rely on Trevor and particularly you to lead on the engineering aspects."

"I'd be happy to do that."

"Thanks, Nick."

Sally worked until a month before the twins were due; boy and girl had been confirmed.

"My tummy won't let me reach the computer," she groused. "I can't lean over to write either."

There was then a slight mothers' barney. Ellie, quite reasonably, said Sally was her daughter and her responsibility. Geraldine accepted that but pointed out that Ellie would not be able to drive Sally into hospital when her waters broke.

"Reg can."

"Reg won't even be in the same county."

Ellie gave in, reluctantly to all outward appearances but actually was relieved and glad that Geraldine would be with her. As it turned out, Nick was at home when it happened and he drove Sally to the Royal.

Nick would laugh about it later. Sally gave birth on her due day with only six hours of labour. The twins, boy first, were born within twenty minutes of each other. Nick actually spent the entire time in a state of total turmoil: worry about Sally and discomfort at being present at a totally female happening. On the other hand, although he kept his face firmly turned away from what was going on down below, he revelled in being able to hold Sally's hand throughout, encourage her during her contractions and kiss her as each baby was delivered. His relief at the end left him almost as exhausted as Sally but, as the babies were both handed to her and he kissed their wrinkled foreheads while she held them, he felt exhilarated. He slid his left arm under Sally's neck so as to be able to hold her shoulder.

"Well done, my darling, and thank you for my children. I love you so much."

She smiled tiredly at him. "I love you, my Nick. Thank you for being with me. It meant a lot."

The twins were whisked away, Nick was shooed out and Sally left to sleep.

Nick rang home before he drove back but, of course, both mothers wanted details as soon as he got home. He did the best he could and then collapsed exhausted into bed.

They named the twins Stephen Nigel and Helen Geraldine. They explained to Ellie that Helen was the nearest that they could get to her name without copying it. She was happy.

Hardly was that over than one morning Norman came to see Nick.

"Nick," he said, "I'm going to be sixty in November and want to call it a day. Annelise and I want to travel a bit and I don't want to be too decrepit to enjoy it."

Nick looked at him silently and with sorrow. "I'm going to miss you, Norman. You've been the most tremendous support and encouragement to me."

"Believe me, Nick, with you in the hot seat these have been the happiest days of my time here. I hope we shall continue to see a lot of each other and I shall always be there for spurious advice."

"It'll never be spurious, my friend." Nick smiled sadly. "Oh well, at least it'll keep Melanie busy finding someone who can match you."

"The two of you might like to consider Tony Reynolds, my second in command."

"Will do, Norman."

Melanie approved of Tony Reynolds but still thought it would be a good idea to interview someone else as well. Nick made a point of getting to know him better. The more he did the better he liked him. He realised too that he had a very good brain. He told Melanie to call off the hunt and instead look for a replacement for Tony. She suggested internal promotions and recruiting a young junior. Nick approved.

There was no improvement in the construction business over the next year but Nick managed to keep everyone employed mostly on small projects which did allow the PMs to give some of their site managers the chance to run a project from cradle to grave and merely keep an eye on them. It was good for them. Harry turned out to be excellent at this encouraging the younger men to think beyond the pale.

Sally had of course given up work. Nick and Megan missed her a lot to begin with but Megan, sometimes accompanied by David, became a regular visitor to her at home. She also got to know Ellie better as she frequently came to stay doting as she did on her grandchildren.

Sally loved being a mother and was a natural. The twins thrived and clearly adored her. They also showed delight whenever they saw Nick. He was a very proud and loving father.

It was a year later that Trevor dropped his bombshell. He asked Nick to join him in his office after a Board lunch.

"I shall be resigning in six month's time," he said. "I shall be sixty-five and even if I was asked to stay on I would refuse. I'm actually really quite weary."

"I shall miss you, Trevor."

"Thanks, Nick, but I hope we shall go on seeing each other. The thing is I'd like you to take over from me. I'm pretty certain Geoffrey would buy it."

Nick looked at him in silence for a few moments. "I'm honoured and flattered that you think so highly of me, Trevor, but it's not something I can give you an answer on now. I need to think about it and talk it over with Sally."

"Of course. I didn't expect you to react in any other way. Feel free to quiz me too."

"Thanks. Let me be quite clear as to what the job entails. You run the company and The Board endorses your recommendations."

"Pretty well but since Geoffrey took over as Chairman he has handled our investments."

"Good. I wouldn't have a clue. I only met the two new directors today and haven't really got to know them. They're certainly younger."

"They're both city whizz-kids with no engineering background. They seem pleasant enough."

"No influence in government circles."

"Not that I'm aware of."

"So that's another year without."

"Yes."

"Did you play a part in selecting them?"

"No. Geoffrey just handed me their CVs and told me that he would be recommending them to the shareholders and as usual they toed the line."