day after Thanksgiving…” she said, a little disappointed she wasn’t going to be able to mingle with the crowd and watch what they looked at or bought. She learned a lot about buying habits just by observing her customers. “I think we should go to my office where we can have some privacy.” She started toward the elevator expecting him to follow, but when she arrived, she turned and found him still standing where she’d left him.
Eli Austin looked around the store, a smug, pleased look on his face that told her he was enjoying the moment. She headed back to him.
“Are you all right, Mr. Austin?” she asked.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been inside Bennett’s at Christmastime.” His gaze roamed the floor.
“Really,” she said astonished. “Why not? You don’t shop locally?” She had a vision of cheap, little Dollar Bin stockings hanging from his mantel with Dollar Bin gifts inside.
“That sounds like an accusation.”
She studied him, expecting him to answer her questions, but he seemed disinclined to continue. “I hope you’re impressed.”
“Very.” He looked around again.
As customers gazed up at the lavish decorations, Eli Austin watched them. Darcy glanced at her watch. The morning was going to be long, and she still had a number of things to finish before Santa arrived at noon with his entourage of children and ballet dancers performing vignettes from The Nutcracker ballet throughout the store.
“Our decorations are considered the best in Atlanta, the most famous in the South.” She tried to keep annoyance out of her voice. He may be the new owner of Bennett’s, but the work didn’t stop for his convenience.
“I know that,” he said, his gaze chilly and detached as he watched a man point at something in a display case. The clerk bent to open the case and remove the man’s requested item. The clerk spread a silk scarf on the counter while the customer bent over it.
“Some traditions must be upheld despite the dip in the economy, Mr. Austin.”
A look of disapproval crossed his face and Darcy knew Christmas was never going to be the same again. She knew bad blood existed between her family and his. What had happened, she didn’t know, but she had hoped he didn’t carry a grudge. Obviously, she was wrong. She was going to have to unpack her suitcase full of charm today, not wanting him to know how angry she was at her mother and stepfather’s selling of the store. She wasn’t going to let this change of ownership defeat her. The words became a mantra as she headed back to the elevator with Mr. Eli Austin in tow.
The doors to the elevator opened and Silas, the elevator operator, smiled at Darcy. “Mornin’, Miss Darcy,” he said with a little tilt of his head. Silas was nearly eighty-one years old and started working at Bennett’s right out of high school. Darcy had watched the cap of kinky hair on his head turn from black to gray to snow white. He’d always been tall and strong, and in her eyes handsome, but now he was a little stooped and his clear brown eyes had clouded slightly. His red jacket hung a little on his slight frame and one hand had developed a slight tremor. But no matter what, he was always at his post.
Silas had patched up her bruised knees and told her stories about all his years running the elevators at Bennett’s. He could have retired, but Darcy wouldn’t consider Bennett’s the same without him. So he stayed while the other elevators had been changed over to automatic.
“Good morning, Silas,” she said. “Have you heard anything yet?” She crossed her fingers, knowing how much the old man doted on his only granddaughter.
“Yes, we did,” Silas said with a twinkle in his eyes.
“Don’t leave me in anticipation,” she said as she rested a hand on the antique-brass railing that surrounded the cabin. The elevator was beautiful with a marble floor, mahogany paneling and polished brass accents. Not one fingerprint ever marred them.
“Cornell and UC Davis,” he said with pride.
She felt a glow of pride. “Which one is your granddaughter going to choose?”
“She has a couple weeks to decide,” Silas replied. “I’m thinking she’s leaning toward UC Davis.”
She put her hand in her pocket and pulled out an envelope. “I’ve been carrying this around for a couple weeks.” She handed the envelope to him.
Silas opened it and glanced at the check inside. “This is too much, Ms. Darcy.” He tried to hand it back to her.
“No, it’s not. Veterinary school is expensive and your granddaughter is going to need every penny she can get.”
He stuffed the envelope in his pocket, then closed the old-fashioned elevator doors, sat back down on his stool and toggled the stick. The elevator hummed as it moved upward.
She could feel Mr. Austin’s disapproval as he stared at Silas. His face was scrunched up as he studied the elderly man in his spotlessly clean gray-and-red Bennett’s uniform.
Silas was a fixture in the store. When Darcy had been a child, Silas had taught her how to run the elevator and let her sit on his stool and pretend to be him.
The elevator came to a smooth stop, and Silas opened the doors to the office floor. Darcy stepped out and led the way down the long stretch of hallway to her office. She opened the door and stepped inside.
Her office was small and cluttered with file folders piled on the old wooden desk. File cabinets lined one wall and a small window looked out over a portion of the street. The only modern conveniences in the room were the updated phones and the thoroughly comfortable office chair behind the desk.
Eli walked in behind her and looked around. “The last time I was here, I met your stepfather in a completely different office. Yours is—so—”
Her stepfather’s office had been for show. Hers was for work. She laughed even as her office walls seemed to crowd in on her. “Efficient, small,” she finished for him. “I don’t spend any more time here than I have to.” She picked a stack of folders off a chair and set them on the floor in a corner suddenly conscious of the mess and the fact that with him standing so close to her she felt breathless and annoyed at the same time.
“Surveying your empire,” he said, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
She gave him a sharp glance. “You could say that, but usually I fill in working a register, or fitting some shoes. Department store…uh…stuff.”
Darcy knew Bennett’s from the ground up. Every summer when she was off from school, she’d worked in a different department, from restocking to theft prevention, maintenance to food service and returns. She’d even learned to operate a forklift on the docks. Her grandfather had demanded she understand how Bennett’s worked no matter how small the details. He demanded she know every man and woman who worked at Bennett’s. She didn’t have to be their friend, but she did have to understand their needs and concerns. Happy employees made for a better store.
From the day she could walk, Darcy had explored every nook and cranny from the littlest hidey-hole in the subbasements to the air-conditioning vents on the roof. She’d worked valet parking and scraped gum off the parking lot concrete. She’d scrubbed elevators, restrooms and changed out toilet paper. There wasn’t any place or anyone in the store she didn’t know.
