Gertie Golden Girl

Chapter 14 ULTIMATUM

Gertie collapses and taken into critical care

As soon as Gill reached her Standhope Winter Bank office first thing Monday morning, she heard from her secretary Kelly that Jake was back in the bank and was in the print room, but he hadn't taken off his coat so was likely to disappear soon.

Jake was deep in conversation with the pretty girl labelled 'Christina' when Gill stopped at the print room doorway, but all of the things she had prepared to say to the man she loved evaporated, as she witnessed the girl let out a squeal before throwing her arms around Jake and giving him a joyous hug. Hardly appropriate manager-staff behaviour, especially considering their age difference.

Gill blinked back tears and started to backtrack, but bumped into Gerald Standhope, her boss, who gently dragged her fully into the print room with one hand behind her back.

"Ahh, Gill, you are just the person I needed to see, Kelly told me you were heading this way," Gerald said to her, then called out, "Jake! Aunt Gertie's in hospital, Sir Michael's been trying to get hold of you all morning --"

"Oh gosh, Gerry, I forgot to change the SIM card in my phone, what ward is she in? --"

"I'll tell you what I know on the way over, Jimmy's moving the car out front."

"I'll let everyone on my side of the family know through Sally, Uncle Gerry," Christina brightly volunteered.

"By all means, Chrissie, dear," Gerald replied, "do please let them know, but you know how Aunt Gertie would hate any fuss."

The young girl nodded in acknowledgement, pulled out her mobile and started swiping and tapping on the screen.

Gill stood there thinking, 'Aunt Gertie, Uncle Gerry, Chrissie, rest of the family, Sir Michael?' She was completely bewildered with what was going on in addition to seeing her lover in the arms of another.

Jake collected his coat from the back of a chair and moved towards Gill.

"Hi, Gill, my love," Jake said, squeezing her shoulder, and kissing her forehead with a lingering kiss, "you're a sight for sore eyes. I was just coming up to see you after I'd caught up with Chrissie. I've just told her she was officially in charge of running this print room from now on and that the next trainee would be her assistant. Come on, if Gran is asking for you, well, then you need to come with us too."

"Yes, Gill," Gerald insisted, "Sir Michael told me she was particularly insistent that you come with us."

"But I've--" Gill spluttered.

"Kelly's cleared your appointments for today," Gerald said, ending any protest, "Jimmy'll be sitting on double yellows waiting for us."

"But if Chrissie's taking over here," Gill said to Jake, "where are you going?"

"Winstone's of course," Jake replied, "come on, I'll explain after we make sure Gran's all right."

Down the corridor and into the lift, Jake held tightly onto Gill's hand, while Gerald explained that the doctor, Sir Michael, had said Gertie was undergoing tests and that they were not to be too alarmed at this stage, but she had been insistent in calling the three of them to her bedside immediately.

Gill remembered that Sir Michael was Jake's skin doctor or plastic surgeon, but it appeared from the conversations that he was Gertie's general practitioner, too.

When they reached the car, Gerald formally introduced Gill to his driver, an upright middle-aged man called Jimmy, which she thought odd. Jimmy explained to Gill with a grin that Chrissie was his youngest daughter, which didn't do any more to explain to Gill what their relationship to anyone else meant at all.

Gill felt too intimidated by her boss's presence in the car to discuss her personal life, especially with Gerald concentrating on briefing Jake on various bank events over the past week, especially odd when Jake wasn't employed by the bank and was moving on to a rival bank's premises presumably to run their print room. Even Jimmy chipped into the conversation from the front seat of the limousine, saying that he had sorted out the Istanbul end with the perfect man and back-up assistant for the job. Gill was only grateful that Jake maintained a firm grip on her hand throughout and occasionally patted the back of her hand with the other, and twice, during breaks in the conversation, leaned in to ask her solicitously if she was all right, to which could only wordlessly nod her affirmation in spite of her completed bewilderment at the way the day was going.

Jimmy dropped them off at a quiet side door at the hospital, where a distinguished and smartly dressed man in a pinstriped suit stood to meet them, holding a fire door open for the new arrivals to pass through into the building. No introductions were clearly necessary towards the other two, but he extended his hand to Gill.

"Miss Gillian Moorhouse, I'm Sir Michael Rahn, welcome to my hospital. It is my pleasure to meet you at last and I hope that your next and future visits would be on less grave occasions. Now, please follow me."

He led them along a number of corridors through to Gertie's private room. Gerald strode in front next to the good doctor, asking about what tests were involved.

Jake was still holding her hand and whispered to Gill, "Michael is my skin doctor that I told you about and he still insists on checking me over a couple of times a year. He's itching to get his hands on me with the new laser technology that is available but he is honest enough to admit that there is nothing pressing that needs doing."

"That sounds good," Gill replied, "and he's also Gertie's doctor?"

"Yes, of course, he's our family doctor."

It was a small, plain room, part of the ICU department, that they were directed into, and Gertie was sitting up in bed, propped by numerous pillows. A monitor registered her heartbeat and another, at the end of a lead attached to Gertie's finger, displayed her temperature, which to Gill looked normal. There were no intravenous drips in view, Gill noted. A nurse removed herself from the room on the faintest of nods from Sir Michael. A short, fat bald man, however, stood patiently in the corner, a portfolio folder in his hands, its red ribbon fasteners hanging loose.

"I am all right, there's really nothing to worry about, just in for tests hopefully, but the vultures," Gertie looked pointedly at Sir Michael, "insist I stay in bed for a few days. That'll be all, Michael, we have family matters to discuss."

"I think I'd rather stay and keep an eye on you, ma'am," the good doctor replied, staring down Gertie's glare, "if you don't mind of course, and taking doctor patient confidence into account."

She nodded her concession to him with a smile and turned to Gerald.

"OK, Gerry, what have we got?"

"It depends on what Jake has managed to do, really, Aunt Gertie, we haven't even broached the subject yet. With Jake's 18, your 13 and my three percent, we are presently 17 percent short of a majority. The hostile bid is led as expected by Winstone's and they appear to believe they have the upper hand. I have spoken on the quiet to several of the underwriters involved this morning but their blood is up, this amalgamation coming to the market has the vultures holding their breaths wondering whether to sit on the fence or circle to feast on the results. While we've experienced tentative overtures before, back in 2008, this is the only hostile proposal we've had in living memory. Jake, what have you managed to arrange in the last week?"

"Oh, I bought the lot that the Winter-Perez family held in Standhope Winter and was granted a year's proxy on their Winstone's holding, so end of problem, really. I had to sell all the Bolivian mining interests and the Argentinean ranches, as we had discussed, plus the Andes ski resort, which I was a little reluctant about, but used as a tipping bargaining chip it really couldn't be helped."

"You have proxies for a majority of Winstone's?" Gerald asked, rubbing his hands together, his face beaming.

"Yes, Jamieson secured 40% of the current board, plus our combined 25% gives us control of Winstone's," Jake replied, "and Winstone's has 18% of Standhope Winter so we now have a 52% winning position on the Standhope Winter defensive side. I doubt if the board meeting on Wednesday will be anything other than a formality, the bid will be withdrawn by Winstone's today. Jarvis may have already heard rumours of the bad news by now."

'Winstone's? Jarvis? Wayne Jarvis presumably? Board Meeting?' Gill thought, 'what's going on? And now Jake's let go of my hand!'

"Capital!" Gerald exclaimed, "I'll get back to work then! Aunt Gertie, I'm so glad to see you looking so well, but then I always assumed you would be." He reached over and kissed his aunt on the cheek. "I'll send Jimmy back to pick you both up," he declared to Gill and Jake, "while I go and help security move my office. See you later, and my heartiest congratulations, my dear." He kissed Gill on both cheeks, which he had never done before, and departed.

Gertie thought that Gill looked absolutely stunned by what was going on around her.

Then Gill turned around to face Jake and found that Jake was kneeling on the floor, looking up at her expectantly.

"I know this isn't the most romantic place to do this," Jake said, "but the right time is the right time wherever that is, I suppose. Miss Gillian Moorhouse, I know that I love you more than any man can love any woman, and that I have long imagined this magical moment, ever since I first met you. I once believed this possibility was beyond my wildest dreams. Ever since you have allowed me to enter your life, my love for you has only been inflamed by you and I want to be with you forever. Would you do me the honour, my dearest Gill, to become my lawful wedded wife?"

He took her hand and with the other hand withdrew an antique ring box from his pocket, flipping it open one-handed, revealing a huge deep-blue-tinged diamond set in a gold band. "This was my mother's ring, the stone reset into the same gold, newly recast to your size. I managed to pick it up from the jewellers before they opened officially this morning. But if you feel you would prefer another --"

"No! No! Your mother's ring? It's perfect... of course I'll marry you, Jake, I love you, but what about Izote?"

"Izote? From Dartmoor? Oh, she's a business partner of, well, ours now. As you know, they maxed out their high street bank loans as a start-up business with little collateral. When they asked our advice on their financial position we both identified that they were insufficiently capitalised and needed more cash to develop the accommodation capacity to make he business immediately viable. It's a sound investment and, with us as silent partners, leaves Rawlyn and Izote free to run the business themselves without undue interference. I thought in time, once she's finished school, Jenny could take my place on their small board of directors. That's what merchant bankers do, Gill, we see the potential beyond the initial balance sheet and make the impossible happen."

"But I oversee any new business at the bank and I didn't see any proposal --"

"That, sweetheart, is because I personally loaned them the money from my, well now our, own accounts."

"But you went away, you left me, and were totally out of contact."

"Yes, I'm sorry, I went away, but it was because Wayne was living in your house --"

"On the sofa, Jake, you know he said he had nowhere else to go. I would never --"

"I know, sweetheart, of course you wouldn't knowingly give anything away, nor would I but we had to be careful. We only promoted Wayne to CEO of Winstone's in the first instance to give him enough rope and, as expected, he speculated on world markets and lost a fortune, or at least a fortune on paper."

"On paper?" Gill was even more bewildered, "what does Wayne have to do with Izote?"

"Nothing at all, sweetheart. But, we've been monitoring Wayne Jarvis and my facilities management team worked the computer interchange to make it appear as though he was trading on the futures market when he was not. We have had programmers working round the clock intercepting and gathering evidence. He has been losing money for some time. It came to light late last year, but we couldn't track down the evidence. It identified a loophole in Winstone's online security."

"Wayne, my Wayne? OK, not mine exactly, but the kids' father, you are saying that he was using the bank's money to speculate?"

"Yes, we figured he was using the bank's money in private transactions, making profits, which he creamed off for himself and paid the bank back within the accepted settlement period, and scrubbing the books to hide the transactions. But then he started losing money and he covered his tracks by stealing from other accounts and hiding the transactions."

"But how?" Gill asked.

"He used dormant accounts, stealing from people who rarely accessed their accounts. Some savers just draw interest, while other accounts have balances that remain idle for years. Winstone's security was archaic, but we suspected something was going on and, as soon as we tightened up and identified the stolen accounts, whoever was doing it shut down their activities for a while. We had no evidence, so we needed to set up a 'cookie jar'."

"We tightened up, sorry, who's 'we'?" A puzzled Gill asked.

"Me, Gran and Gerry already had between us about 25 per cent of Winstone's Bank. Gran and Gerry gave me voting proxies on their shares and I set about buying more and persuading more than half of the board to put my private secretary Jamieson forward for co-option to the board back in December. Through Gran's influence with Winstone's board, we retired the old CEO and appointed Wayne in his place, sat back and watched for him to start his tricks again. Then he did the completely unexpected. He had held a limited-by-invitation board meeting two weeks ago, during which he blamed the bank's losses on his predecessor and managed to get the board's agreement to put together a takeover bid for Standhope Winter, to disguise the losses from the City within the enlarged group. And then he shut down the bank's print room, locking Sally out and breaching their contract with SWN."

"So you couldn't talk to me with Wayne around?" Gill asked, "although he was only there the weekend while we were away together and he only stayed the Sunday night on the sofa and we kicked him out on Monday."

"It was essential that he had no inkling of what we were doing. If he bothered to look at the shareholding in Winstone's and, being a private bank there were only a dozen holders on the register, which we held off on the updating of as long as we could. As you know, I had already chanced a brief meeting with Wayne Jarvis at Jenny and Clay's request, but once he moved in, well...."

"So you weren't worried about him and me, and stayed away from me for that reason?"

"Absolutely not. I know I can trust you, Gill. I know we love each other and we each only needed a small push to commit to each other for life. You are no longer the insecure woman you were at Christmas when your marriage collapsed, you are a confident, beautiful woman who knows she is adored by her family and me, not necessarily in that order."

Gill smiled and pulled him in for a kiss, "Yes, I am that woman, or if not exactly, at least you make me feel like I am. I was worried about us all this week, but I do love you."

"And I love you too, Gill, but I must leave you now and ensure the takeover at Winstone's is a smooth one. And I want to be the one to personally tell Wayne what is happening to him."

"Will he go to prison?" Gill asked, wondering about the effect on her children and his new baby.

"What, the father of my soon-to-be-stepchildren? Oh no," he chuckled, "he's going to manage the Middle East business from the Istanbul branch, starting on Monday."

"Ah, that's where Istanbul comes in. I heard you talking in the car. But isn't that a dangerous part of the world for a Westerner?"

"Speak to Jimmy, he'll reassure you of Wayne's safety, he has hand-picked two guys to accompany him at all times."

"Jimmy the driver?"

"Yes, he's a member of the Nicholls family, our family, darling, you'll meet them all soon enough, long before the wedding. Pretty well all the print shops' staff, the IT contractors, the bank's drivers, the cab drivers, the security staff, caterers, cleaning staff, etc are family or connected by marriage, working for my, our companies. I must be off, do you want to walk down to the car with me?"

"I'd like a quiet word with Gill first, if I may, Jake, dear," Gertie said from the bed, "girls' talk you know... essential girls' talk."

"Of course, Gran, I was forgetting the presence of Barrington. Gill, would you and your lovely children care to join me for dinner tonight at our apartment?"

"Yes, of course, that would be lovely, what time?"

"I might be a little late and, I guess, you might be too; Gerry will explain your new role. I'll ring you later once I reset my phone and give you some idea once I have assessed the situation at Winstone's. Just let yourself in using your thumbprint, OK?"

"OK."

"Say you'll stay the night, love; Clay and Jenny have already packed enough clothes and will be picked up from school by our cab company. My cousin Belinda spoke to them at their schools this morning. Kelly should have the forms for you to fill out for the school, so that our cab company can collect the kids. They'll have sorted out what rooms they want as their bedrooms by the time you get home, I'm sure. You OK with that?"

"Yes, darling, I'll see you when you get home," Gill said. "And is it Jimmy, Sally and her husband that want to move into my old house that you mentioned to me last week? Because they can as soon as I pack my personal stuff. I'll leave it fully furnished."

"Thanks, Gill, Sally will be relieved. Actually, it is only Sally, Grant and her sister Chrissie that want to move into your place; Jimmy's taking the Janitor's flat at our place. He's your driver now, so it will be handy all round to have him and the company limo on the premises."

Gill still looked dizzy, "My driver?"

Jake kissed and hugged her; "Gerry will explain everything when you get to the office. I'll send Jimmy back to collect you after he drops me off at Winstone's. See you tonight, my love."

He kissed Gertie on the cheek before leaving, "Now, don't overtax yourself, Gran, I've got this covered. You just rest and get well, we have a wedding to arrange and I want you on the front pew behind me."

"Of course, dear," Gertie assured him, "I'll only keep her a couple of minutes, besides Michael is here to ensure I do not overdo it. I'll be home for the weekend and I want you all to come up and stay at the Manor."

'Of course we will." Jake nodded to Barrington and Sir Michael, finally squeezing and kissing Gill's left hand as he went by her and departed.

"Come and sit here, Gill dear," Gertie patted the side of the bed and turned to address Barrington, who was already walking forward, "do you have both the documents ready, Barrington?"

"Both, Gertie?" he asked and, on her nod, continued, "of course," handing them over to Gertie.

"Are these the pre-nups to sign?" Gill asked.

"No, of course not, dear," Gertie assured her, "we don't, well we haven't so far, gone down that distasteful route. If you feel it necessary or events warrant, you could of course opt for that. But I don't think you will need to. Barrington's daughter Caroline was originally earmarked to look after your legal matters as your private secretary in future, only she is presently on holiday in Africa with her family. Now, circumstances have changed suddenly so we have rather been caught on the hop. Caroline is good, brilliant in fact, she has a young family and is about your age, maybe a couple of years younger, so I think you should develop a working rapport quite quickly."