Chapter 56

The first thing I have decided after giving it a great deal of thought concerns what happens after we complete our course here. When we get back to Marchester I want to come off the pill Rory. By that time I will have been on it for over six years. But I don't just want a break because I think that would be a good thing for health reasons. I want to come off it because I want you to get me pregnant, if that is alright with you?"

I looked into his eyes with apprehension as I said this. But the joy that lit up his face told me that I need not have worried it was obvious that he was delighted by that prospect.

"You will get no argument from me on that point" He confirmed and if anything his smile grew larger.

"The second conclusion I have come to, concerns our children. I want to have our kids close together. I would like us to plan a gap between them of two to two and a half years if possible. I also feel that bringing up our children is not something I want to leave in the hands of others. I want us to be the ones who play the biggest part in their lives and help to shape their future and I hope you feel the same."

"I won't argue with you on that point either," Rory told me

"The third conclusion I have reached concern's their upbringing. I don't want the major figure in their formative years to be a nanny. Yes I may employ someone to help with child care if we have three quite close together but I will be with them more than she will. I want us to be the one who take them places and who do things with them. I want to be the one who shares in their discoveries and watches them learn, grow and develop."

I paused for a moment and looked to see if he was going to make any comment on my last statement. But he said nothing. He just appeared to be thinking about what I had said so I continued.

"If you agree with this and if you do the maths my darling. You will find it adds up to something like this; we have four years here and then probably another year before our first baby. If we spend five to six years producing another two that makes ten years and it might even stretch to eleven years in all. If you agree that we should be the most important people in shaping our children's future then I don't want to return to work before the youngest is at least seven so that makes it a total of seventeen to eighteen years from now before I would be in a position take on any major work role in MacFarlane Enterprises. How do you feel about that?"

Rory

Now Rebecca really had surprised me. I had expected her to work with me in the firm for a good few years before we got round to thinking about babies. Now she was proposing that she should become a full time mother and have our children in a relatively short space of time as soon as we leave University. I agreed with her reasons for this and was happy to go along with her for I wanted to play a full part in the lives of my children as well rather than leave it to a nanny no matter how good and how professional she might be.

My mum had to work in order to put food on the table, but with the consent of her employer she was able to keep me with her. Since right from my earliest days I had been a placid child and could amuse myself by playing with a toy, looking through my books or listening to music, I rarely disturbed her when she was working. Looking back I could see that I was just a child who was brought up in two different houses, the one where I lived and the one where my mother worked. I had no problems with what Rebecca wanted to do.

Thinking about it, I could see that she was turning her back on the role that her dad wanted her to take up. Instead, she had chosen for herself the life she might have had if her brother had lived. I wondered how her dad would react to this idea especially after the way he had spoken to her on the death of her brother.

I could see how she was thinking and why she had come to the conclusions she had now reached. She knew the role That I was just as capable of stepping into the role which Tom had been expected to play since I was intelligent, conscientious and capable of meeting his requirements and her dad knew this. So she saw me no need for the two of us to be equally involved.

Since her dad had accepted me as someone capable of doing this and had virtually adopted me as a son then we would be meeting the requirements which he desired. The basis of this unofficial adoption was not just their need for a succession, but they had come to love me like a son and this was especially true of Ruth. As this was the case my doing so was what her father had hoped for she felt she could leave it to me to play that major role and leave her free to be the mother of our children. There was only one little snag to this. In the parlance of sport, her father saw us as his dream team, and with both our hands grasping the tiller of the good ship, Macfarlane Enterprises

"I am happy that you want to do the things you have proposed," I told her, "For I agree with you that shaping our children's future should be our job and not one that is farmed out to others, no matter how good or how professional they may be. I am not sure your dad would like the idea as much though; he expects both of us to play a large role in the future of the firm.

"Much as I love my dad, I don't think he has a right to expect that all his plans will come to fruition," she said with a wicked grin. "I have played an important part in preserving the future of our business. I have brought you and others like Kenny and William into the MacFarlane fold. If you all develop in the way that is expected there will be more than enough brains at the top to make sure that the business continues to prosper. If you fill the top spot and the others rise with you then that should be enough for dad."

"If we let him know how we are thinking we will soon find out if that is the case. It will be an interesting conversation.

"It is not a discussion we need to have for some time. As long as agree on the shape our future lives should take, that is enough for now." Rebecca said. "We will let dad know when he needs to know. A lot can happen between now and the time we graduate."

"You are right about that, but don't bet on him being chief executive until he retires. If we had both decided to play our part and do as well as he expects, we may be called to take over the reins much sooner than you think."

"What makes you say that?" She wanted to know

Remember that your dad invited the junior minister who pushed through the grant for your loan company.

"Of course I do," she told me, "But what has that do with my dad giving up control and expecting us to take over.

"The minister and I had a long conversation at the reception. He was extremely pleased that we were making a success of our enterprise and as a result he was in line for promotion at the next cabinet reshuffle. He also told me that the prime minister and some of the important members of the cabinet were impressed by your dad. They admired his commitment to preserving the prosperity of his local community and the way he got things done in his business; hence the knighthood."

"Well I am pleased about that, but I don't see my dad entering politics," she told me.

"Don't be too sure about that," I told her. "If the time came when he felt we were able to run things here he might well take the bait. What our chap said, was that they would like him to take on the role of some sort of advisor on industrial matters. He said that in the long term he might end up as an unelected member of The House of Lords or in whatever form the second chamber takes if it gets reformed; so Lord MacFarlane remains a distinct possibility."

Rebecca

I was surprised by what Rory had just told me for two reasons. Firstly because he had never mentioned that conversation before and I was also surprised that my father had come to the attention of such powerful men who seemed to regard him highly. But I suppose on your wedding day followed by your honeymoon it would be easy to let a conversation like that slip your mind, though he had obviously thought about its implications at some later time.

As I contemplated what he had just told me, I began to think he might be right. My dad had a social conscience, and though he was no socialist he had a deep concern for people and if he felt he could bring the benefits he sought to bestow on his local community to the wider population as a whole, he might be tempted to take up that challenge. That would be even more the case if he thought he had lieutenants who could step into his shoes at the local level.

"I concede that this could well be a possibility if that kind of challenge was placed before him," I told Rory, "But don't forget though I am not a full member of the workforce I will have a seat and a voice on the board of directors and that should keep me abreast of developments within the firm. So I will still be in a place of power and be able to play my part in the decision making process when hard choices have to be made."

"That's true," Rory agreed, "And as my wife you will be kept abreast of many of the things that are going on from day to day and of the developments we might be trying to advance. From that standpoint we can still be seen to be working as a team."

"That brings me back to what I have said previously. We can let sleeping dogs lie for the time being. Besides when we do bring the matter up we will do it within the family and mum will certainly back me up. Sometime soon I am going to suggest to my father that with her organising skills and her wide range of contacts, she should be made a director and have a seat on the board also. I think this would be a good move and another asset that might strengthen our argument when the time comes, for he has seen how she can influence decisions for the better even though she has never worked in the his firm."

"You know Rebecca sometimes I get the feeling, that you can be even more Machiavellian than your father." Rory told me with a grin.

"If I am," I said with a smile, "then it is because I have learned how from my father who is a master of the art."

At the weekend I spent the Saturday with Marjory and we went shopping for some things that she needed to make the apartment more in the style she would like. Over lunch I told her about my conversation with Rory regarding the future. She was a bit surprised how much my attitude had changed since my marriage.

Then I had not been thinking of any family I might have and seemed to be gung ho about playing a role in the development of our businesses. Marriage had broadened my perspectives though and changed my priorities and I told her so. I had decided that a career girl was not the role for me. I wanted to be a mother hen and do the best I could for my chicks. So I told her that was why my marriage had changed my priorities.