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.
Eli seated himself on one of the two chairs in front of her desk while she struggled to get around her desk to sit on her chair. Maybe she could have opted for a slightly larger office, but so much of the running of the store was done elsewhere. All department managers reported to the general manager who reported to her. And if she needed to talk to someone, she had a tendency to go to their office rather than demand they come to her. She wasn’t into power plays.
The door burst open and hit the back of Eli’s chair. He fell forward with the momentum, first looking surprised, and then irritated at the interruption.
“Ms. Darcy. Ms. Darcy.” Clara Shaw, the Santa parade coordinator, burst into the room wringing her hands.
Clara was a tiny woman with glasses perched at the end of a narrow nose and a snowy-white Gibson Girl bun at the top of her neck with pencils stuck into it for easy access. Christmas was her main focus every year. Since Darcy’s grandfather’s death, Clara had become the sole coordinator of all the seasonal projects. Clara, like Silas, was a fixture at Bennett’s.
“What’s wrong, Clara?” Darcy asked calmly. For Clara everything that didn’t work properly was a cause for drama. Drama Darcy didn’t have time for today.
Eli leaped to his feet, his arms outstretched as though he expected Clara to faint dead away.
Clara held up her hands, tears leaking out of her crinkled blue eyes. “Santa, Santa…he fell down and…and broke his leg,” she wailed. “What are we going to do? He’s been our Santa for…for thirty-five years.” She ended her statement on a dramatic up note that told Darcy she was truly upset. The woman was as high-strung as a poodle on espresso, but she was the best seasonal coordinator in the business.
Darcy put a hand on the older woman’s shoulder. “Clara, take a breath.” Darcy inhaled, and Clara followed her. She couldn’t stop a little smile when she realized Eli was doing the same thing. Darcy’s father had stolen Clara from Saks Fifth Avenue more than twenty-five years ago, and Saks had been trying to lure her back ever since.
“What will we do?” Clara asked, brushing tears from her eyes. Her mouth was tight with stress.
“You’re going to call his son,” Darcy responded calmly. “Daniel retired from the police force this year and he’s been waiting for ten years to be Santa. Tell him this is his big, shining moment.”
Clara put a hand to her pale cheek. “I knew you would know what to do. You’ve saved Christmas.”
Eli grinned at Darcy and she found herself grinning back. She could see he understood all about Clara. Clara was…well, Clara. She fussed, worried and fussed some more and in the end everything always turned out much better than expected.
Clara left, searching through her pockets for her cell phone. Darcy closed the door. “You’ll have to excuse Clara. She gets a little excited this time of year. Now where were we?”
Eli looked around. “So tell me why you are in this little room and not in a big, ostentatious and pretentious office like your stepfather.”
“Because I like to think I was raised properly and hopefully words like ostentatious and pretentious will never be used to describe me,” she answered. “I do hope you aren’t planning on occupying his office because it’s the new day care center. It was the perfect size.”
“I recall reading something about a day care center. I didn’t realize it would be that office.”
“Did