Written on the Wind (The Blackstone Legacy #2)(52)
Natalia had been blessed with a forward-thinking father who opened doors for her in the world of banking, but even Oscar was going to resist letting her travel with Dimitri to Washington.
After returning to Manhattan, she went straight to his office. It would be better to make her appeal at the bank rather than at home, where Poppy eavesdropped whenever Natalia tried to be alone with her father.
After making an appointment with his secretary, she retreated to the ladies’ washroom to splash cool water on her face and tidy her hair. This washroom had been built for her alone. When she started working here nine years ago, she was the only female on the entire staff, and her father had spared no expense to ensure her comfort. Other women soon joined the bank in clerical roles, but to this day, she was the only female business analyst in all of New York City.
At three o’clock on the nose, she was shown into her father’s office for their meeting. To her surprise, he had her baby brother propped up on his desk, wearing a navy-blue suit complete with a checkered vest and a red bow tie. The spiffy look was marred by the baggy trousers cut to accommodate a diaper, but he certainly looked dandy.
She laughed. “Isn’t he a little young for a clerkship?”
The baby squealed when he recognized her and nearly toppled over in delight as he waved a toy duck at her.
“Never,” Oscar insisted with pride. “I’ve decided to bring him to the office for a few hours each week so he can feel at home here. Come inside and say hello to him. It looks like he wants you to pick him up.”
Alexander’s nanny and a footman were in the sitting area of the office, but there was no sign of Poppy, which wasn’t a surprise. Poppy rarely showed much interest in the baby except when there was an audience, but Oscar couldn’t get enough of the boy.
Natalia wasn’t jealous. She remembered coming to the bank when she was a child too, although she was eight or nine before Oscar began bringing her. She used to sit in the corner of his office, reading her schoolbooks while he met with his clerks and secretaries. Hopefully Alexander would grow to love the bank as much as she always had.
Alexander lifted his arms as she approached. He was a hefty baby, and it took some jostling to get him situated over her shoulder. Would she ever have a child of her own? It could never happen with Dimitri, but she pushed the disagreeable thought away as she patted Alexander’s back, loving the way he babbled in happy contentment. It was a brief respite, and this conversation was about to get awkward.
“Can we speak alone?” she asked, and with a brisk nod, Oscar directed the servants to step outside. Natalia kept pacing, nervously patting the baby as she walked. This was not going to be an easy request.
“Well?” Oscar asked once the door closed behind the nanny and footman.
“There is a man in Washington, DC, who might be able to verify Dimitri’s story about what happened at the Amur River. He’s a doctor who was stationed in Japan and has spoken with credible witnesses to the event. The Russian ambassador is trying to discredit Dr. Seaman. Dimitri is heading to Washington in hopes of supporting the doctor’s cause before it’s too late.”
Oscar shrugged. “By all means, I think he should go.”
“I want to go with him.”
“Absolutely not!” Oscar’s voice cracked across the office like a shot, and Alexander began to cry.
She rocked the boy a little more vigorously and met her father’s gaze squarely. “Dimitri doesn’t understand American politics.”
“Then I’ll send someone down with him. It seems to me you are already too deeply entangled with this man. Are you?”
Lying to her father was impossible, so she kept pacing with the baby. She was more than entangled with Dimitri. He had a piece of her heart she could never get back. Her longing for a child might someday drive them apart, but for now she needed to see this mission through.
“I feel compelled to go,” she said. “For three years I have considered the Trans-Siberian to be my finest accomplishment, and now it is in danger. Not because of finance or engineering problems, but because an evil incident has stained what should be a monumental accomplishment. We need to expose that evil so it can’t happen again.”
Oscar shook his head. “If you call attention to the massacre, it will embarrass not only the Russians but the bank as well.”
“I understand. That’s why it is important for us to be part of solving the problem. It will prove we haven’t turned a blind eye to the massacre.”
Oscar’s hands clenched, and his face turned pensive. He took an unusually long time to ponder before finally speaking. “You may go, provided Poppy accompanies you as chaperone.”
Natalia almost dropped the baby. “Poppy?” Having that woman latched to her side during this difficult trip would be unbearable. “The only place Poppy would like to escort me is over the side of a cliff.”
Oscar heard the veiled contempt and narrowed his eyes. “Poppy may not be the kindest of women or the best mother. She isn’t an interesting conversationalist or a skilled hostess, but by all that’s holy, she has been an excellent wife to me, and you need to sheathe your claws.”
“This isn’t about Poppy,” she retorted. “The Russian ambassador is as canny as a wizard, and she will embarrass us.”
Oscar pushed himself to his feet in growing annoyance. “You are about to walk a tightrope while trying to pull off a diplomatic coup. You! An unmarried, twenty-eight-year-old woman traveling with a single man who is an outrageous flirt. You need Poppy. We are fortunate news of your cross-country travel from San Francisco has not leaked out, but you can’t roll the dice again, so Poppy is going with you, and that’s the end of the discussion. My bigger concern is the railroad. I took a risk by letting you manage the project, and for three years I have defended you against critics who think I lost my mind. If scandal from this massacre taints the railroad, it will taint us as well, and I will have no choice but to remove you from all duties in the bank. Is that clear?”