A Race to Splendor (25 page)

“Whom you’ve no doubt deliberately beguiled, just as you have his friend, Dr. McClure.”

Amelia stared across the table at her employer, grateful that everyone in the office had left for the day. Everyone, that was, except Lacy Fiske, who appeared oblivious to their heated discussion while she pounded her typewriting machine in the next room.

“I have not ‘deliberately
beguiled
’ anyone,” Amelia protested, stung by Julia’s characterizing her as some temptress employing her feminine wiles. “I am just trying to do the best job I can under exceedingly difficult circumstances.”

Julia heaved a melancholy sigh. She appeared as genuinely distressed as her beleaguered employee. “Well,” she said slowly, “I’ve warned you repeatedly about my position on dealing with the press, so in my judgment, this most recent development is totally unacceptable. My only recourse is to discharge you for a serious breach of professionalism. I’m assuming supervision of the final phase of the Bay View’s construction.”

Panic gripped Amelia as the reality of her financial obligations to Aunt Margaret, her mother, and her own future whirled through her mind. Before she could reply, however, Julia walked toward the door by way of dismissal.

“How distressing that it should take an incident like this to make you understand how I work in this office, Amelia. I’ll expect you to submit your final design for the Bay View’s back garden before you leave tonight.”

This can’t be happening…

Like a sleepwalker, Amelia took a seat at her slanted drafting table. Lacy had stopped typing and was preparing to accompany Miss Morgan on the evening ferry to Oakland. The dutiful secretary shot Amelia a discreet look of sympathy but said nothing. Once the two women donned their coats and left the building, the place grew eerily quiet.

Chapter 20

The following morning, Amelia arrived at the construction site at her usual time, rehearsing during the walk from her basement quarters in the Fairmont to the Bay View how she would inform Thayer that she’d been sacked.

She’d had virtually no sleep and was to some degree relieved that Morgan’s client was nowhere to be seen. Her gloom was only heightened when Jake Kelly, in charge, today, of the crew hammering shingles on the walls framing the first floor exterior, challenged her every directive.

Kelly barely acknowledged Amelia’s request to check the wooden slats for splits and cracks before they were affixed, turning his back and strolling away with a mumbled, “I’ve already given them a look-see.”

Amelia followed in his wake. “Well, please check them
again
, Mr. Kelly. If yesterday was any gauge, we’ll have rain pouring into the ballroom at the first storm.”

Kelly had appeared ready to refuse outright, but Amelia stood her ground, hands on hips, and eventually he complied with her order. By mid-morning her head was throbbing and she felt like jumping into the bay.

Around noon, she heard the familiar sound of the Winton chugging up the steep incline on Jackson Street. J.D. brought the car to a halt near the cement-making operation, yet he remained in the driver’s seat, hailing her with a shout. When she drew near, he ordered, “Amelia, please get in.”

“You need to speak to Jake Kelly about the shingling—”

“It will have to wait. Tell Kelly he’s in charge. Get in.”

“But he’s a surly lout, and besides, I’m furious with him today.”

“No wonder Miss Morgan discharged you. You’re willful and refuse to take orders, just like he does.”

She stood, hand resting on the vehicle’s door, staring at J.D.

“So Julia’s already told you she’s let me go?”

J.D. shrugged. “’Fraid so.”

Amelia looked at her boot tops, willing herself to maintain her composure. Finally she murmured, “Well, I guess you might as well put Spitz and Kelly in charge, period.”

“
You
are in charge.” Silenced by this, she could only look dumbly at him sitting behind the wheel. “Get
in
,” he repeated. “We’re going to the Cliff House for lunch, Miss Full-fledged Architect.”

***

Through the Cliff House restaurant’s windows, Amelia watched the surf pound against a cluster of rocks a hundred yards off shore. Now that Julia had officially terminated her employment, an avalanche of regrets and recriminations had come tumbling down and the notion of striking out on her own seemed utterly absurd.

“Amelia, look at it in this light,” J.D. offered cheerfully. “You’re beyond Miss Morgan’s reach now. When she announced to me she’d sacked you, I explained that I’m happy with you as my principal designer and construction liaison and didn’t want to make a change. She said I’d have to choose—her or you—so I did. You. You’re rid of her and she’s rid of you. You still have gainful employment, so everybody’s happy.”

“I’m
not
happy,” Amelia retorted, then fell silent.

She was highly gratified to think a Julia Morgan client had enough confidence in her work to ask her to remain on the job. But far outweighing that was the plain fact that she felt sad and embarrassed that she was held in disgrace at Julia’s firm.

Her mind churning, Amelia continued to gaze through the restaurant’s large window. To her right stood the mammoth iron and glass building housing the tile-lined pools of the Sutro Public Baths. It was a sparkling, early autumn day, yet she now felt as gloomy as if the landscape were dripping with fog.

“Can’t you see what’s happened?” J.D. chided. “The apprentice has bested the master.”

“I’ll never best Julia Morgan!” Amelia replied vehemently. “She’s a genius.”

“Oh, come now. You’re just as good.”

“No, I’m
not
! She’s on a par with any of the great men… Frank Lloyd Wright, David Burnham, Stanford White—in his good years,” she amended. “And she runs a fine firm. Her clients are her primary focus and she cares passionately about the quality of the work done for them in her name.” Amelia pushed her fork around her plate, toying with her uneaten filet of sole. “It’s just lately, everything I did seemed wrong, seemed to make her angry with me. Actually, she’s kind as can be to the support staff. She even paid for the schooling for the child of one of the men who works for her.”

“And so, your sins were…?”

“She believed I overstepped. That I was a self-promoter. I honestly don’t think I was, but Hopper’s article in the
Call
was the last straw. Julia detests the press and is very strict, with very clear ideas how things should be run. I
agree
with that! How could it have come to this?” she pleaded, mortified that her eyes were suddenly brimming with tears.

“Regardless of what you might think, Julia Morgan is human,” J.D. said matter-of-factly, “and I expect she’s just the tiniest bit unsettled by how swiftly her junior associate has come into her own. The disasters in San Francisco tested everybody’s mettle and you rose magnificently to the challenge. You’re not sitting at her feet anymore, Amelia. You’ve earned the right to stand beside her and I think she finds that rather upsetting.”

“She found everything upsetting,” Amelia replied, anger colliding with her remorse. “She disapproved of practically anything I did.”

“Like what?” he asked curiously.

“Such as my hiring Loy Chen to make me supper each night, or my having dinner occasionally with Angus McClure, or—”

“Did you tell her he’d proposed marriage?”

Amelia was aghast and must have appeared as shocked to J.D. as she felt the night when Angus finally lured her to dinner at Tadich’s restaurant and then, out of the blue, brought up the subject of marriage.

“How do
you
know that?” she demanded.

“Angus told me,” he said, shrugging. J.D. gave her a sly wink. “And he also told me you’d turned him down.”

“Oh Lord!” Amelia said, hating that her cheeks felt hot.

Angus had only gotten so far as to say he thought that the time had come for them both to settle down before Amelia had made it clear as gently as she could that she would decline his or
any
offer of marriage. Angus had been a stalwart friend, and she cared greatly for his welfare, but like Etienne, he assumed she’d give up architecture once she became a wife—which told her that he understood her not one whit.

J.D. laughed. “I’m warning you, Amelia, he’ll try to ask you again.”

“Good heavens! Let’s not get off the subject. Julia Morgan has just
discharged
me, and that’s bound to be all over San Francisco in a day or two. And by the way, she was furious you’d egged on that reporter to gain publicity for the Bay View. Frankly, I think she disapproves of you nearly as much as she does of me!”

“Maybe that’s because she knows I think you can do just as good a job as she can.”

“You
didn’t
say that to her?”

“I didn’t reveal
all
my secrets,” J.D. said, clearly enjoying this conversation
.

“Oh for pity’s sake, this is serious! The woman has given me the boot after all the struggles we’ve shared as fellow students and architects.” She gazed at the pounding surf. “I feel absolutely wretched about it.”

“Amelia, you did nothing wrong,” he said gently. “It will all work out, I expect.”

Amelia severely doubted that, but found it supremely ironic that it should be J.D. Thayer offering her solace in this situation. He speared a piece of shelled crab with his fork and paused before popping it into his mouth. “Actually, I think she likes you very much.”

Amelia slowly looked up from her plate and asked warily, “Why do you say that? She’s just sent me packing.”

“She definitely admires your work or she wouldn’t have given you the Bay View to design and eventually oversee, but I imagine she figured she’d have you under her control a good while longer.”

“Control?” she said slowly. “Is that what you think this is about?”

“I do indeed, but if I’ve learned anything about you, Amelia, I would advise Miss Morgan that’s quite out of the question. Now, eat your lunch and let’s get back to work.”

***

On the drive back from the Cliff House, Amelia attempted to relax against the back of the passenger seat while J.D. talked.

“Julia Morgan looked positively stricken when I said I preferred to keep you on this job as architect and site supervisor.”

“Positively furious was more like it, I expect. And by the way, why
did
you tell her you wanted me to continue at the Bay View instead of her?”

“I’ve observed that you can do the job, and I’m fast running out of funds,” J.D. said flashing a grin across the front seat. “That means that I can better afford your fees than Julia Morgan’s.”

So he didn’t prefer her skills, just her price tag.

“Oh. I see. My difficulties with my employer have done your bank account a good turn, is that it?”

“Your
former
employer,” J.D. reminded her. Looking pleased with himself he added, “But absolutely. I think I’ve got myself a bargain. You’re
good
, don’t you realize that yet? And if it soothes your spirits any, in my opinion, Miss Morgan overreacted to Hopper’s article in the
Call
. I know your intentions were pure. I watched you try to credit her for everything, even though you did all of the work.”

“Promise me you didn’t voice that opinion to her!”

J.D. shook his head, his eyes alight with amusement. “I’d seen Hopper’s piece in the newspaper and figured it would land you in hot water. I went down to her office this morning and explained exactly what happened during Hopper’s visit to the site, but she was unbending about what she considers your insubordination. As far as I was concerned,” he added, “her attitude annoyed me. I didn’t like being forced to choose.”

“Well then, given what you told her about how that reporter behaved, why would she still insist you pick either her or me?”

J.D. wheeled the Winton through the upper gate of the Presidio and drove the winding road through cool stands of trees before he answered. “Just like you, my dear Amelia, Julia Morgan likes to win and is willing to take risks to do that against all competitors. She figured she was Queen Bee. She looked utterly shocked when I said I would happily retain the services of the architect who had thus far done such a fine job.”

“Oh good Lord,” groaned Amelia. “What must Lacy and Ira think?”

“If they’re your friends, none of this will matter much.”

But Amelia doubted that. Perhaps their pleasant association couldn’t withstand this break with Julia and she would lose three associates instead of one. Wouldn’t Lacy automatically side with Julia?

Meanwhile, J.D. pointed to a package he’d placed on the floorboards when he’d entered the Winton. “You didn’t eat your lunch, so I had the waiter pack it up for your supper.”

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“And I want you to move into the Bay View so we won’t waste time or money housing you now that this break with Julia means you have to leave the Fairmont’s basement. Your traveling back and forth to your aunt’s in Oakland by ferry would eat up time.” Amelia looked at him with alarm, but before she could respond, J.D. added, “And you’ve got to learn to drive the Winton. I’ll need you to fetch supplies and be able to get to the docks in record time when goods and equipment arrive, instead of sending our workers who need to remain on site, or having you spend most of the day riding a cable car to and fro. We’re on a tight schedule and a strict budget, my girl.”

“I’m not your girl,” Amelia said under her breath.

“What did you say?”

She wasn’t anybody’s “girl,” not even Julia Morgan’s. As of today, she was Amelia Bradshaw, architect—and single practitioner. She would show Julia someday she’d made a big mistake to discharge her so unfairly. She was on her own now, and she’d better toughen her hide and show all of them what she was capable of. She would do whatever it took until the reconstructed Bay View reopened its doors before the Fairmont Hotel could have its roof repaired!

“Look, Mr. Thayer,” she said, eyeing him steadily. “We might as well deal with one particular subject right now. People will talk no matter what we do, but if I’m to live under your roof and we’re to work together on this project as business partners, we both must agree we will maintain a strictly professional association in every regard.”

For the second time that day, J.D. appeared mildly amused, which irritated her no end. “That sounds eminently sensible.”

For some reason, she was even
more
irritated that he’d agreed so readily, but also relieved. She tapped her finger on the vehicle’s window ledge and then realized it was something she’d seen Julia do many times while she was playing for time.