The Duke's Runaway Princess Page 0,20
him. He didn’t consider himself successful with her yet, but soon.
“No. It has to happen in two months’ time. Any earlier and the heat of the summer hasn’t abated. Any later and the kids will be starting back to school for the fall term and the shop keepers won’t have the time to dedicate to a festival of this size, nor will the outsiders have the time to visit. It should be three days long, starting on a Friday evening and running through Sunday, late afternoon. You’ll need to report to me on the progress each week and give me a status on any issues and progress the following week will bring. I want to know details on both the business classes as well as the festival. Give me total counts on how many of the shop keepers are attending the classes, talk to the ones that aren’t attending and let me know why they’re skipping them. Get feedback on the classes and make sure they’re up to speed with the villager’s skill level.”
Their meals arrived at that point and Zarah contemplated her salad while her head churned with questions. Could she really do this? And what about the weekly meetings with this man? She didn’t like him and, because she didn’t understand him, she didn’t trust him. Not one little bit, but she also knew how important a festival like this could be to both the villagers and the surrounding communities. The boost to the economy could be enormous. “I still don’t understand why you want me to do this,” she finally said, picking at her lettuce absently, not really hungry as issues and challenges popped into her mind.
Derrick looked across the table at the beautiful young woman. He could tell she was enticed by the option but that she was afraid of him as well as afraid of failure. In this case though, he wouldn’t allow her to fail. He’d been buying up businesses and either selling them off or fixing them ever since his father had passed away fifteen years ago. He knew just by looking at a financial statement when a company was doomed or if it could survive, as well as how to fix it. He had a gift for sizing up people and knowing what made them tick which is how he’d gotten so far in business. But this woman intrigued him on a different level.
He definitely could have chosen someone else for the task of building up the village economy and branding the village as a go-to place for quaint shops and tourists, but he suspected this woman would do an exceptional job because of some hidden agenda that he was still trying to discover, and because he would put all of his resources into ensuring the village’s success. The people in that town deserved that and so much more.
Unfortunately, they didn’t even realize that they were in a downward trend and he couldn’t seem to convince any of them to change their business models to stop that trend. He’d seen it coming for the past few years but none of them would allow him to help, eschewing his offers to improve their profits or even hiring a town manager. All they saw when he spoke to them was a badly beaten little boy hiding from a tyrannical father and not the competent business man he’d grown into.
But Derrick wouldn’t allow them to avoid the problems any longer. They needed to take control of their future and this slender beauty was the only person so far who had been able to break them out of their ruts.
Instead of giving her the village history, he said simply, “You got Mary to come out of the technological Ice Age. Anyone who can do that is definitely ready to tackle this project.” He picked up his sandwich, “Now eat and tell me the things that are initially going through your mind.”
Zarah took a small bite of her salad, but in truth, she was too excited to eat anything. The ideas were zipping through her mind and she was eager to get back to her apartment and start writing down her thoughts.
As they ate, she tossed out thoughts and he discussed possible obstacles and she was impressed with how he worked her ideas into a more concrete opportunity. She had to give him credit. As they talked, she suspected that all of those rumors about his business acumen weren’t exaggerated on little bit. She definitely wouldn’t mind