Small numbers matter differently to people who earn them.
“Did you receive equipment you personally keep?”
“No.”
Beckett said:
“Company wagons and rail carts require—”
Henrietta turned.
“Then company pays company equipment.”
“That has always been rule.”
Beckett looked toward Emily.
“This is exactly what I mean.”
“Personal feelings.”
Emily finally spoke.
“My mother isn’t on payroll here.”
“She founded the company.”
“That gives her perspective.”
“Not operating authority.”
Henrietta looked at Emily.
There was real conflict there.
Good.
Henrietta did not want her daughter obeying automatically.
“What do you think?”
Emily took breath.
“I think Charles is right about one thing.”
Caleb shifted.
Henrietta waited.
Emily continued.
“The company is too large for every old policy.”
“We have inefficiencies.”
“Some branches are barely profitable.”
“Open ledgers have become cumbersome.”
“Workers sometimes misinterpret temporary costs.”
Henrietta’s face remained still.
Emily’s eyes filled slightly.
“But I also think we crossed line.”
“We cut too much too quietly.”
“We used your name on contracts while changing the thing your name supposedly guaranteed.”
Henrietta nodded.
That was the problem.
Not modernization.
Dishonesty.
Henrietta turned to Beckett.
“Remove my portrait.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“Today.”
“But—”
“If my face is being used to sell a promise you no longer make, take it down.”
The room stayed silent.
Henrietta stood.
Her knees protested.
She ignored until steady.
“And stop using ‘Henrietta Lawson standards’ in contracts until standards are written clearly enough a cook can read them.”
Beckett looked stunned.
“That brand is worth considerable money.”
“Then perhaps you should not have spent it.”
She walked out.
Caleb followed.
Emily remained inside.
Outside, snow fell lightly.
Caleb waited until they reached carriage.
Then:
“You were terrifying.”
Henrietta looked at him.
“Too much?”
“No.”
“You didn’t fire him.”
“Not my authority.”
“You could have told Emily.”
“That would make her manager in name and me manager in fact.”
Caleb smiled.
“You hate that.”
“Yes.”
“What happens?”
“She decides.”
“And if she sides with him?”
Henrietta looked toward office.
“Then she sides with him.”
Caleb studied her.
“You mean that?”
“No.”
She sighed.
“But it has to be true.”
That evening Emily did not return for supper until nearly ten.
Henrietta waited in kitchen with tea.
Caleb had gone upstairs.
Emily removed gloves.
Sat.
For a while neither spoke.
Finally:
“I fired Charles.”
Henrietta’s face did not change.
“Why?”
“He ordered payroll department to move deductions under another name after you left.”
Henrietta’s eyebrows rose.
“Bold.”
“Stupid.”
“Both.”
Emily rubbed her forehead.
“I also suspended deductions.”
“Good.”