A Kept Woman Read Online Free PDF Page A

said, tentatively.
    Diana frowned slightly with her beautifully shaped brows. ‘Well, I don’t know about that. I imagine they will find other work. Ernie’s job was to make the
    company profitable. I think he did all right, don’t you?’ ‘He certainly did,’ Milla said dryly.
    Ernest Foxton ran such a tight ship they had given him the nickname ‘Captain Bligh’. The head of the sales forcel
     
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    who had been with Hatfield man and boy for twenty years, had been called up to Ernie’s office and given twenty minutes to clear out of the building. The logo which had been the company’s signature for half a century was instantly wiped out and replaced with bright neon colours that stood out on the shelves. New writers were dropped from the list, old staples were cleared out wholesale and midlevel authors lost the editors they had relied on as Ernie fired some staff and rearranged others. With the closure of the printworks, and the farming out of printing to contractors, Ernie had personally eliminated about a third of the workforce. Maybe it was necessary, Milla thought, but did he have to be quite so brutal? The horror stories were legion. Pack up your books and go, and if you contact any of our writers we’ll sue. Pregnant women fired in their ninth month, lifelong company men sacked and told not even to expect a bonus. The atmosphere over at Hatfield had been just a little bit short of France during the Reign of Terror. It was Ernie’s recolution, and it had been a corporate bloodbath.
    Of course a few people had come out of it pretty well. The shareholders loved Ernie: their moribund stock had risen five and three-eighths. Then there were the superstar blockbuster writers, the bestselling authors who now got an even larger piece of the pie. And finally, there was Ernie himself, who had shot up from middle.manager to big cheese. He had been rewarded with stock options, cash bonuses, a bigger office, a Lamborghini and, finally, a new job from half a world away, offering him double his salary. Ernie was a two-million-dollar-a-year executive and he was only thirty-eight. The world was his oyster now, and he could afford the delightful Diana, and any other toys he might want.
    ‘Well, there you go then. I expect most of the talk is about how much money he made for the company.
     
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    People are too tied to tradition. All Ernie did was try to give the place a facelift.’
    ‘The company he’s taking over in New York is going to be a tougher proposition. They have a very prestigious fiction list and publish a lot of well-loved popular authors. I don’t think they’ll react the same way if Ernie decides to go for slash and burn again.’
    Diana selected a pair of Manolos that set off her outfit perfectly and congratulated herself inwardly for her luck in not having taken them down to the charity shop yet.
    ‘Nobody loves businessmen, Milla, but they do love results. Sometimes tough decisions have to be taken. Ernie’s a very kind soul, you know. He’s already discussed all the charities he thinks we should get involved in in America.’
    All the .most visible ones, Milla didn’t say.
    ‘I’m sure you’re right. I just thought you’d want to know what’s being said.’
    ‘And I do.’ Diana gave her sister a kiss on the cheek. ‘Of course I do. You’re a darling to warn me. I need to have ammunition when the New York literary establishment starts being horrible to my husband and making snide jokes at parties. You need to look out for that sort of thing. I’ll watch his back, so he doesn’t get insulted for twenty minutes straight without knowing what’s going on.’
    ‘Sounds good. Now tell me about your place, again.’ ‘Central Park West,’ Diana rhapsodised, ‘mid seventies, twelfth floor, extremely good building, the committee turned down Barbra Streis.and two years ago because they didn’t want photographers hanging round…’
    As she launched into her description of the