Stone, Katherine by Pearl Moon Page A

capable
of taking pictures of Hong Kong?"
    "For what I want, she's the best. Just as you are. Just as
Sam Coulter is."
    With these last words came an unmistakable reminder. She and James
had disagreed, too, about his choice of Sam Coulter to build the hotel. In the
end, Maylene had to concede that James was right. The man who'd built Le Bijou
on L'île des Arcs-en-ciel was the best choice for the Jade Palace.
    Maylene wasn't happy about having to rely on a man from Texas to
make her extraordinary vision become an extraordinary reality, but she accepted
it. She'd even promised James she'd be "charming" to Sam, beginning
the moment they met, an encounter scheduled to take place in three days.
    And when she was face-to-face with the daughter who'd been loved,
not abandoned?
    The question filled her with such fear she blurted out,
"Please find another photographer, James!"
    "Tell me why, Maylene."
    "You know why! The Jade Palace is a symbol of Hong
Kong. As much as possible, everyone involved should be either British or
Chinese."
    "With very few exceptions, everyone is."
    "Not Sam Coulter. Not Tyler Vaughn."
    "Sam Coulter and Tyler Vaughn worked together on Le
Bijou," James said, patiently reiterating information she knew. "I
readily admit that before this, I've always relied on Hong Kong-owned trading
companies. But as you know, Grand Prix was the supplier for Le Bijou and Sam
specifically requested that Tyler be involved. It's best for the Jade Palace,
Maylene. Grand Prix has an impeccable reputation for on-time delivery of top
quality materials. And there's something else you don't know about Tyler,
something I haven't told you."
    "That he used to be a race-car driver? I know that, James.
That's why he's named his company Grand Prix. But I don't consider the
willingness to risk one's life by driving a car at breakneck speed a terribly
impressive credential."
    "What you don't know, Maylene, is that Tyler has a deep
commitment to Hong Kong. In 1989, after what happened that June in Beijing,
thousands of people left the territory. Businesses pulled out, tourism
plummeted—"
    "I know," she interjected softly. She'd been in London
during the fear and chaos following the Tiananmen massacre. In London, worrying
about the mother with whom she'd severed all contact years before. Juliana had
become an internationally acclaimed fashion designer during those intervening
years, able to emigrate if she chose, her lucrative business welcome anywhere
in the world. But she'd vowed never to leave Hong Kong, and she hadn't. She was
here, in this small corner of the world where no distance was great—except for
the vast distances of the heart. "So Tyler didn't join the throngs who
left in the summer of '89."
    "Actually, that's when he arrived. He'd made the decision to
expand Grand Prix to Hong Kong before Tiananmen and didn't revoke it, despite
the fact that at the time it was a risky commitment to keep."
    "We've already established he's a risk-taker. And now that
the scare has passed and Hong Kong is booming once again, he's profited
immensely." Maylene knew her flip reply was unfair to Tyler. He'd honored
a commitment from which many others might have—and had—simply walked away. But
she wasn't making concessions to James at the moment, especially since he'd so
casually discounted her concerns about Allison. "You really don't care
about my opinions, do you, James? All your promises about how this would be a
collaborative effort were just rhetoric."
    The muscles in James's jaw rippled, but his voice remained calm.
"This is a collaboration, Maylene, but please don't forget I'm
paying the bills. That gives me ultimate responsibility—and liability—for the
project, and it also gives me the final word on every decision. I care about
your opinions. Very much. But what I'm interested in at the moment is your real
reason for objecting so strenuously to Allison."
    "I told you my real reason, and you obviously don't care." Her shrug was