A Fall from Grace - Maggie Ford (have you read this book TXT) 📗

thick, pink broadsheet, saying, ‘We’d best go into my study,’ and taking her hand, led her from the breakfast room. Spreading the paper on the desk, he made her sit in his brown leather swivel chair, himself remaining standing, leaning over her.

For the next two hours he explained the intricacies of stock market dealings, his tone low and patient, yet she could detect a faint hint of enjoyment. It felt they were closer than they had ever been in all their married life as he explained a little of the jargon used that would help her understand what she read.

‘You must realize that as a novice you are up against those who have been investing for half their lives.’

‘But I have you behind me,’ she said eagerly.

‘But you’ll still have much to learn, my dear. There are well over two thousand quoted companies to choose from, so you must identify the shares and judge if they are going to behave as you hope. It can become quite time-consuming, but utterly fascinating should you find you’ve a natural bent for it.’

As he continued to explain and she to listen attentively, his voice grew solemn and patient; a tutor and his pupil.

‘There are many types of shares – blue chips, recovery shares, growth stocks… But we will not go into this just yet.’

He was turning the financial pages slowly, pointing out the various options, most of it going over her head as yet.

‘You will need a portfolio,’ he was saying close to her ear as he bent beside her. ‘A collection of different shares and other investments designed to spread your risks. There are risks attached – which shares are good and carry low risk and those which could prove far from good. There’s a deal of luck attached. You must use your own judgement carefully. With many successful investors it is instinctive. You are a beginner, but you will have me beside you to guide you. And I will guide you, my dear, so that you do not make any glaringly wrong decisions. I will do all I can to keep you safe.’

Madeleine nodded, biting her lip as she tried to take it all in. In all the time she had known him he’d never spoken of his stockbroker business or his own dealings. Now so much candid information came as a surprise.

‘Don’t let it worry you, my dear,’ he was saying, seeing her look of concern. ‘I’ll be here to prevent you making any costly mistakes. Companies are more than a mere set of investment figures. The smallest, unexpected turn of events, and everything you’ve made could be lost. It has happened before and it will happen again. You have to be prepared for the unknown. But I will run you through profit and loss accounts and balance sheets of whatever companies you intend to invest in.’

He paused, smiling indulgently. ‘I will explain anything that confuses you – if you still wish to go on after all I have explained and all I still have to explain to you.’

Did she wish to go on? She’d thought it would be so easy, seeing how easily he seemed to make money. Now, listening to him, she realized what a huge venture she was taking on. What did she think she was doing, she a woman, trying to invade a man’s world?

Yet seeking any other way to find enough money for an investigator to trace her baby, with James seeming so reluctant to help, was impossible. It was a mystery why he was so ready to grant her wish in this venture when he denied her the opportunity to find her child. Well, now she’d do it on her own.

And so she began to cut her teeth on the mysteries of stocks and shares, listening to James, acting on his advice, slowly learning as the months crept towards Christmas, ever fearful of making a wrong judgement as James had warned could happen to anyone and lose what she’d reaped; her rewards were modest but growing steadily. So far she had been fortunate.

Practically dedicating himself to the task, advising, warning against this or that move, he was at times almost overcautious, behaving as though it was all too much for someone like her to get her head around, causing her to resent the implication that it was because she was a woman. In a way he was right as she fought with the seemingly endless aspects of the money market. But as the months went by she was slowly growing more conversant with it all so that by Christmas she found herself needing James’s routine advice less and less, although his expert advice was still worth listening to.

She’d discovered that she had a flare for it, a sixth sense that seldom led her astray. She had begun too to notice that while he’d congratulate her on her cunning he seemed to attribute it more to luck than judgement, as if a woman shouldn’t be deemed capable of calm judgement. It nettled, but her purpose was of greater importance than getting riled by his attitude, every small success put by with the purpose of accruing enough to hire herself an investigator to find her baby. She was aware that after all this time it could be a lengthy business but was determined that James’s attitude was not going to stand in her way.

Neither had she revealed anything of her plan to Anthony; hadn’t even told him she was dabbling on the Stock Exchange. Theirs was another world when they were together. Nothing should spoil that. So long as she didn’t fret on how long the search for her baby might take, life was sublime every minute she was with him. She prayed constantly that it would never end.

Then, just after Christmas James fell ill with pneumonia, and knowing her place had to be with James, her time with Anthony had to be curtailed.

‘It’s only until he recovers,’ she told Anthony but he wasn’t happy.

‘And how