Hannabel came through frequently, always with a critical eye on the merchandise, with useful comments to make to her husband. Thornton always listened to her. She was rarely wrong. Styles had changed, but the concepts of successful retailing hadn’t. Spencer learned a great deal from both of them. She loved working for her grandfather.
The idea of moving the store to a better, fancier location uptown had been discussed many times, but Thornton always rejected it. Although the neighborhood had improved in the last fifty years, it still bordered on some seedy areas. The customers who came from uptown in droves didn’t seem to mind, and more than ever, Brooke’s was an unexpected jewel in the midst of a dicey neighborhood, which Thornton felt gave them a certain cachet. He owned the building, and he had no desire to sell it and move. He thought it would just make the store seem ordinary if they moved uptown. It was the one point he was always adamant about, and since his instincts had always been infallible on all subjects, his advisors at the store no longer challenged him about a move. They stayed where they were, on the border of what was now Chelsea, with some tenements still nearby. The location didn’t worry Thornton at all. The store was a moneymaker beyond even what Thornton had dreamed of. It was a goldmine.
No one was prepared when Thornton had a massive stroke and died in his sleep the night before his ninety-second birthday, especially Spencer, and Thornton’s wife, Hannabel, even more so. She was paralyzed by grief. They’d been married for sixty-seven years. Everyone was devastated, even the employees. They closed the store out of respect the next day. Everything about Thornton Brooke and his incredible energy had suggested that he was immortal and would live forever. His sudden death had stunned them all.
Spencer couldn’t imagine her life without him, and it was as though Hannabel’s batteries had suddenly run out of power. She seemed lost and confused for the first time. Spencer helped her through the difficult weeks after, but her grandmother wasn’t the same once Thornton died. The life had gone out of her, as Spencer realized that the love her grandparents shared had fueled both of them, and they were irreversibly joined. It was shocking to watch Hannabel go straight downhill and refuse to rally. She didn’t want to live without Thornton. She didn’t know how.
Tucker was equally distraught for different reasons. His father had died too soon, at ninety-two. Spencer, at twenty-six, was too young to take over, just a year out of business school, without enough experience. Tucker was desperate to get out of the business he had hated all his life, but there was no one else to step into his father’s shoes, and he resented his father for it. He could see himself stuck there for many more years, and he had no desire to die in the saddle as his father had. He wanted out, and there was no way that was going to happen anytime soon. The realization that he was trapped in the job he hated depressed him profoundly.
It was a dark time for Spencer. Her grandmother had stopped coming to the store once her husband died, to the store’s detriment and her own. She had two massive heart attacks within four months of Thornton’s death, and died the night of the second one, which made things seem even more devastating for the senior staff, who had known the elder Brookes so well. It was the end of an era.
Tucker made a series of rapid, very poor decisions, canceling several of their more important lines, because he thought the margins weren’t good enough, and as soon as he did, customers began complaining that the merchandise wasn’t as exciting as it had been before Thornton’s death.
Profits dropped in the first year after Thornton died, and again the second year, and Tucker refused to listen to his daughter or anyone else about the merchandise they had stopped carrying. Tucker didn’t care. Spencer was the assistant fashion director of the store then, and worked under Marcy Parker, a woman who had worked at the store for thirty years. Marcy had a strong track record in marketing luxury brands, and she disagreed with everything Tucker was doing, to no avail. They had heated arguments about it, and Spencer was terrified that Marcy Parker would quit. Spencer’s mother was constantly in a bad mood now. She wanted her husband to retire as much as he did, and had for years, but he felt he couldn’t just jump ship. Someone had to run the place, so he was forced to, against his will. Spencer and Marcy agreed that he was hurting the store, but he refused to listen, and made a series of poor investments, which hurt the business even more.
Spencer consulted Barton White, an investment advisor the family had used before, to discuss their stock portfolio. He was young and solid, and extremely bright, had gone to Yale, and had the same concerns she did about her father’s risky investments, switching from stocks to commodities. Since it was a family-owned business, there was no one to stop him. Tucker was the CEO now, in full control. Thornton had never trusted Tucker to make investments on his own, and some of his financial decisions were frankly alarming. Thornton had always kept a firm grip on the reins and the purse strings and now Tucker had control of both. He enjoyed the power more than he loved the store, unlike his father. The store had been a living, breathing being to Thornton, but not to his son.
Barton White invited Spencer out to dinner in the course of discussing their stock portfolio. And needing someone knowledgeable, objective, intelligent, and sane to talk to, she gratefully accepted. Without her grandfather, she had no one to talk to anymore, or advise her, or whom she trusted, other than Marcy, who understood fashion, not finance.
Bart was extremely conservative in all things, which was reassuring from an investment standpoint, and made him less interesting as a date. Until then, she had mostly dated men she’d met in college and graduate school. Bart was more of an adult, although only six years older than she was. He was solid and stable though not exciting.
Spencer had had a disappointing romance in college that had soured her on long-term commitments. Her greatest commitment was to the store. She felt so lost without her grandfather’s good advice that she got more deeply involved with Bart faster than she might have otherwise. She felt vulnerable and alone. She was constantly at odds with her father, and her wonderful grandfather was gone. He was so much to lose and left a terrible void in her life.
Spencer felt wide open and even scared some of the time, which was unlike her. It speeded up her relationship with Bart dramatically, and she clung to him and relied on him.
Spencer got close to Bart at a moment of fear, need, and isolation in her life. Her father took full advantage of his new position as CEO with no one to control him, and every conversation Spencer had with him led to an argument. He finally had the freedom he wanted, although he hated his job and resented the store. He refused to listen to reason, and Bart assured Spencer that her theories and concerns were sound. He validated what she thought.
Bart was startled and impressed by how bright she was, and how mature for her age. She was cautious in her decisions, and the knowledge she’d acquired from her grandfather served her well. Bart wasn’t used to dealing with women as capable as Spencer, particularly not at her age.
She’d been groomed to run a business with expert skill. It attracted him to her, and was a new experience for him. His own mother had never worked, was on numerous charity committees, and had no interest in the business world. None of the girls he had dated had serious jobs, or even worked. They were debutantes and went to parties and didn’t challenge him mentally. Pretty and fun to be with had always been enough for him. Spencer was so much more. She had a great head for business, and was still feminine at the same time. He could talk to her about his own job, and hers as well, and he liked advising her about her father’s constant mistakes, which she spotted every time.