He waved her to a chair. "And give me a minute to get my gears engaged.”
Her voice was huskier than usual.”You may not realize it, but you did just drop a thunderbolt.”
Sam looked contrite.”Oh, hell, I'm sorry! I should have made this more of an occasion. Some days I operate in such a damned hurry that-" Celia said, "This way is fine. In fact any way is fine. You were saying about Montayne...”
But the words were coming from a part of herself that was detached. Her mind whirling, she was remembering an occasion seventeen years earlier when the then vice president of sales, Irv Gregson, now long departed, had ordered her angrily from the company's New York sales convention while an audience of hundreds watched... and Sam had saved her-from the vice president and all the othersand now it was Sam who... Dammit! I'm not going to cry, she told herself But she did, a little, and looked up to see Sam holding out a handkerchief and smiling. "You earned it, Celia," he said gently.”All on your own, every step of the way, and what I should have said sooner is--congratulations! I told Lilian at breakfast and she's as pleased as I am; she said to tell you we'll all get together soon.”
"Thank you.”
She took the handkerchief, wiped her eyes, then said matter-of-factly, "Please thank Lilian; and I thank you too, Sam, Now about Montayne.”
"Well," he explained, "because you've been so close to the plans for launching Montayne, I and those board members I spoke of would like you to see them through, even while you're taking over the bigger responsibility. It will mean a heavy load on you...”
Celia assured him, "That won't be a problem. And I agree about Montayne.”
"At the same time," Sam pointed out, "you should think about a successor as director of pharmaceutical sales.”
"Bill Ingram," Celia said without hesitation.”He's good and he's ready. He's also been working on Montayne.”
The hitching-your-wagon-to-someone-else's-star principle, she thought, just as she had described it to Andrew on their honeymoon ---also long ago. Celia had followed Sam upward, and how successfully her plan had worked! Now Bill had followed Celia,- and who, she wondered, had already attached themselves to Bill? With an effort-her mind for the moment split in two---she concluded her discussion with Sam.
That evening, when Celia told Andrew of her impending promotion, he hugged her and said, "I'm proud of you! But then I always have been.”
"Most of the time," she corrected him.”There were moments when you weren't.”
He grimaced.”That's all behind us.”
Then, with a brief, "Excuse me," he went to the kitchen, returning moments later with a bottle of Schramsberg champagne. Winnie March followed, beaming, with glasses on a tray. Andrew announced, "Winnie and I are going to drink to you. You can join us if you like.”
When the glasses were filled, Andrew raised his.”To you, my dearest love! To everything you are, have been, and will be.”
"Me too, Mrs. Jordan," Winnie said.”God bless you!" Winnie sipped her champagne, then looked at the glass and hesitated.”I'm not sure I should drink the rest of this.”
Celia asked, "Whyever not?" "Well... it may not be good for the baby.”
With a glance at Andrew, Winnie blushed, then giggled.”I just found out I'm preggers-an' after all this time.”
Celia ran to embrace her, "Winnie, that's wonderful news! Much more important than mine!" "We're happy for you, Winnie," Andrew said. He took the champagne glass from her.”You're right. You should do without this stuff now. We'll open another bottle when your baby's here.”
Later, when Celia and Andrew were getting ready for bed, Celia said tiredly, "It's been quite a day.”
"A joyous day all around," Andrew pronounced.”I hope everything stays that way. No reason why it shouldn't.”
He was wrong.
The first hint of bad news came precisely a week later. Bill Ingram, still boyish despite the passage of years, came into Celia's office, which would soon be his. Running a hand through his red hair, unruly as ever, he said, "I thought you should see this, even though I don't believe it's important. A friend in Paris sent it.”
"This" was a newspaper clipping. "It's a news item from France-Soir," Ingram explained.”How's your French?" "Good enough so I can understand.”
As Celia took the paper and began reading, she experienced a sudden sense of chill and premonition, felt a physical shiver as if her heart had skipped a beat. The news story was brief. A woman in a small French town, Nouzonville, near the Belgian border, had given birth to a female child, now one year old. Doctors had recently diagnosed the baby girl as having a central nervous system disorder which permanently precluded any normal movement of the limbs; also, tests showed a lack of any brain development. No possible treatment was foreseen. The child was-in the terrible descriptive term-a vegetable. The examining doctors expected her to remain one. During pregnancy the mother had taken Montayne. Now, she and others in her family were blaming the drug for the baby's birth defects. There was nothing in the news item to indicate whether Or not this view was shared by doctors. The France-Soir report concluded with a cryptic sentence: Un autre cas en Espagne, apparernment identique, a signal. Celia stood silent, meditating, weighing the significance of what she had just read. ... another case, apparently identical, in Spain. "Just as I said," Bill Ingram assured her, "I don't think there's any reason we should get concerned. After all, France-Soir is known for sensational reporting. It's not as if it was printed in Le Monde.” Celia did not reply. First Australia. Now France and Spain. All the same, common sense told her Bill was right. There was no reason for concern. She reminded herself of her own convictions about Montayne, the painstaking French research, the multicountry, lengthy testing, assurances sought after and obtained, Montayne's remarkable record of safety. No cause for concern, of course. And yet She said decisively, "Bill, I want you to find out, as quickly as possible, everything there is to know about those two cases, then report back to me.”