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biased.”
    “Maybe.” But it was true. Jacob was still handsome. Tall, healthy and fit, superbly dressed, and one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. He’d been featured on the covers of
Time
and
BusinessWeek
and in the party pages of
Vanity Fair
. He attended functions with a variety of actresses and models, some as young as his daughter, but that wasn’t what Charlotte meant. He knew what she meant.
    Sighing, he looked her in the eye. “Charlotte, when you are older, you will understand. I believe there are only one or two people in the world with whom one can have a true connection. When you’ve been fortunate enough to find and marry one of those people, you are reluctant to settle for less. One can have lovers, those are easily found, but true love rarely strikes twice.”
    Charlotte snorted. “God, Dad, you sound like a Hallmark ad. Why don’t you try going out with women who are closer in age to you than they are to me? Someone you’ll have stuff in common with?”
    Jacob stood. “Lord, child, you used ‘stuff’ in a sentence and then ended it with a preposition. I can’t continue this conversation.” But he was smiling.
    Charlotte put down her glass and reached for his hand. Jacob pulled her up, held her in the curve of his arm, and started to dance.
    She grinned up at him as they moved slowly into the hall, dancing gravely.
    “The lovely girl … the lovely day …”
    They stopped at the bottom of the stairs, Jacob dipping Charlotte low as they finished the song together. Then he pushed her toward the stairs.
    “Go to bed, little one. Get your beauty sleep, not that you need to be any prettier, Lord knows.”
    He watched until she was out of sight, then closed his eyes, trying to hold the image. Decisively, he turned and headed back to the study. It was morning in Tokyo, and there really is no rest for the wicked.

Chapter

FIVE

    Jacob was long gone when Charlotte came down to breakfast the next day. Sipping her latte, she wandered around the apartment.
    “Looking for me, Charlotte?” Greta surprised her. She’d caught Charlotte watching the young man she’d seen the day before, who was deliciously bent over, repairing something in the kitchen. “Admiring my new appliances?”
    “Is that what you call him?” Charlotte kept her voice low, but Greta raised hers.
    “Watch out, Andy, the mistress of the house is after you.”
    He straightened, turning around to regard his audience. Broad grin. White teeth. Dark skin.
    “You know my heart belongs to you, Greta.”
    “I know, but she’s new in town.”
    Charlotte protested. “I’m not really new, I’m just back again.”
    He shrugged. “Maybe you missed the memo. Young and pretty is out, older and wiser is in.” He grinned at Greta and turned back to work.
    Greta walked out, crooking her finger at Charlotte as she did so. They went into the conservatory, with its curving glass walls overlooking Central Park. It was winter still, and the warmth of the room and the tangle of exotic plants felt surreal against thebackground of ashen trees below.
    “Now, listen here, Charlotte.” Greta had been with the Williams family since before Charlotte was born, and she had become another mother to Charlotte after her own had died. “You keep your hands off Andy. He’s a man, like any other, and likely to get his head turned by you, but he’s happily married, with two small children, and you have no interest in any of that. Leave him alone.”
    Charlotte narrowed her eyes. “I have no idea what you mean, Greta.”
    The older woman snorted. “Please. I’ve seen the kind of trouble you can cause. Burning down a building was comparatively civilized for you.”
    Charlotte was offended. “Greta, you’re exaggerating.”
    “I am not. We went through three pool boys at the summer house one year. And you were only seventeen, so Lord alone knows what you could do now that you have more experience.”
    Charlotte giggled. “Yes, that was a great