When early in the morning the bell rang again, Maximilian, thought, mind still half asleep, that it most definitely seemed to become a rule.
As he only expected bad news, he slowly opened the door. Absolutely dumbfound he recognized Ellie, sweet and beautiful, standing at his doorstep.
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| Edited - J. Mulligan as Max (Source: RANet.com) |
He hesitated to invite her in. But Ellie smiled at him and brightly said: “Good morning, Max. – How are you?”
This brought him back to his senses.
“Good morning, Ellie. – Did you not see the news?"
“Oh yes, I saw them – and I am really sorry, Max, for misjudging you. I thought you had lied to me back there at the restaurant and I really was angry with you about that.”
“I could never lie to you, Ellie.”
Now he invited her in. Ellie looked around and loved the decent and tasteful decorations, Paul Reverue had chosen for the house. They made it warm and welcoming.
“Can I offer you some coffee, Ellie?”
“Yes, that would be nice”. Ellie said shyly.
“But Max, I am not here alone for the reason to say sorry. – I want to help you. – I know you are in financial trouble, let me help you out.”
“No, Ellie. The card will turn up again. I have not given up hope, yet.”
“Then the card is real?”
“Yes, of course it is. – My having it caused all the resulting fuss.”
“But then, where is it?”
“I have no idea, Ellie. The card is gone from the place where I have put it and I already searched the whole house. Fortunately the card is so notorious that no one will dare use it without causing major consequences.”
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| Edited - J. Mulligan as Max (Source: RANet.com) |
They went into the kitchen, where Max prepared some coffee for them. They sat down and drank it, while Max told Ellie about his business plans for finding a partner for his ideas he had already mentioned towards her during their lunch together.
Ellie on her own immediately suggested Faraday Electronics and said, she would see what she could do for him in this regard. Her father knew Thomas Faraday well and surely could help.
Max told her about the rebuffs he had already gotten from them. Ellie was astonished by that, as she knew Faraday as a competent manager who surely must see the brilliance and chance behind such a fabulous idea. That he had not immediately jumped on that chance surprised her.
She promised to directly ask her father to use his influence for Max.
“Are you sure I cannot lend you some money to get over the worst?”
“Yes, Ellie, I am sure. As it looks now, I have no way of paying you back.”
“That does not matter to me, Max.”
“But I can see you and can help you in this time of need.”
“Ellie, I have nothing to offer you. All I have are my dreams of this clean way of living.”
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| Edited - J. Mulligan as Max (Source: RANet.com) |
“But I don’t need all this fuss and shiny things.” With this Ellie, already standing at the entrance, made a wide gesture to indicate her well styled surrounding. Her hand gesture sent the ugly porcelain vase flying. It shattered in thousand pieces, but Max did not care for the 10,000 Pound vase, he cared for Ellie and walked over the shards to Ellie to give her a hearty kiss. Ellie revelled in the kiss, but suddenly started to struggle. Max looked wonderingly at her. Her eyes had detected a golden shimmer in between the white porcelain.
As soon as Max released his hold, she went to retrieve the gold card from the shards and happily presented it to Max.
“The card is found! – Someone must have a bad sense of humour, to place the card in this ugly piece. – Ahem, ... sorry for destroying it.”
Maximilian could not detect the least sign of remorse in her for destroying the ugly thing and he had no sentimental feelings for his accidental acquisition either.
Max took Ellie in his arms again and said: “Now, I won’t let myself be interrupted by a stupid plastic card again” and kissed Ellie thoroughly.
Ellie left Max a while later to speak with her father about his contact to Faraday Electronics.
He immediately dialled Faraday directly and set up a meeting with him for Maximilian Delarmy for the next day.
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| Edited - Richard Armitage as Max (Source: RANet.com) |
As it turned out, Faraday had doubted Max’s competence as developer as long as he had thought him to be a multi-millionaire. As soon as he had heard, that he was an architect with a load of debts, his complete perception of his idea had changed and he just had been in the process of evaluating the concept, which Max had laid down in the already sent exposé. So the intervention by Mr. Carrington only expedited the arrangements for the meeting which had already been planned by Thomas Faraday.
As the server break down at the company was already solved, Ellie took a day off the next day and accompanied Maximilian to his meeting with Mr. Faraday. She stayed out of the interview for the product co-operation itself.
Mr. Faraday welcomed Maximilian in person and friendly showed him around, before taking him into his office to talk with him about the details.
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| Edited - Richard Armitage as Max (Source: RANet.com) |
Max, who burned for his topic, was eager to explain the functionality and the potential he had only started to fully test with exceptional results on his own house.
But not only Maximilian’s behaviour had changed compared to their first meeting, but also the friendly gentleman, full of attention for his concept, had no resemblance to the gruff gentleman Max had met at the garden party.
They cleared the details and agreed, that Mr. Faraday would instruct his lawyer to set up a contract between them. The conditions they agreed upon were very reasonable and fair for both sides.
When Maximilian left the bureau of the manager with a happy smile, Ellie knew immediately that the meeting had gone well and Max had been successful.
They went into a café not far from his house to celebrate the deal.
As the weather had cleared up again, they used the few rays of sunshine and sat on the terrace of the café.
After a while they were disturbed by a row of cars driving up the road to his house. In one they detected a film team. A journalist with big camera around his neck passed them on foot and Max stood up to ask him, what all the excitement was about.
The man, recognizing Mr. Delarmy, immediately took some photos. He also included Ellie in his photos, to report about the love interest of their multi-millionaire in town. Only after the journalist was content with the amount of photos he had taken, Max could get him to divulge the information, what had caused the upset.
“Oh that. The bank has released an official statement that the gold card has indeed been issued and the credit availability is safe.”
Now, with enough photos and a good lead on all his competitors, the journalist was eager to rush back to his office and break the news and of course sell the unique pictures of the millionaire with his love interest for a high price. He left the pair without even saying good bye.
As Max would only have to fight his way back into his house through all the assembled journalists, Ellie invited him to join her family for dinner. As luck had it, not only her parents were present, when they arrived, but also her sister with her husband.
Anthony, who had not heard the latest news, arrogantly ignored Maximilian. Her sister accused her of having ‘bad taste’ in men, to bring this man into her parents’ house.
Conrad Carrington surprised them by asking Max to join him for a glass of port in his study before dinner.
Caro stood there with open mouth, which Ellie silently found quite amusing, but she did not dare to comment on that.
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| Edited - Richard Arnitage as Max (Source: RANet.com) |
All present were well aware, that her father never had invited Anthony to join him in the holy refuge of his study.
When Max and Ellie’s father joined the others for dinner, Max brightly smiled at Ellie, went to her, laid his hand around her back and gave her a light kiss on her cheek. Ellie, not used to show affection in front of others, became beet-red.
“Your father is a nice fellow.” Max added.
“What did you tell him?” Ellie asked.
“To say the truth, I did not really have to tell him much. – He even knew about my accidental purchase of the vase. – He very much cares about you, Ellie, as do I.”
He gave her another light peck on her cheek and they joined the family for dinner.
Her sister and brother- in-law did not speak much, but her mother and father easily lead the conversation with Max when they asked him about his many travels abroad. Ellie listened, though, in her admiration for Max, did not really hear much of the content. She would have to ask him to tell her again at another time, when they were alone.
Nearly two months later at the bank – 1:50 p.m. – 1st of September
Max and his fiancé Ellie went into the bank together to bring back the ‘gold card’.
The card was as good as new, as Maximilian had replaced the 10.000 Pounds for the vase with money from the advance he had received from Faraday Electronics for a development not directly related to his economic housing project. One of his ideas had proved to possess great advantage for the company and Max had been able to sell them the use of this invention.
Max asked for Mr. James Horn, the accountant, who had given him the envelope with the gold card. But instead of being lead to an accountant’s desk, he and Ellie were directly lead to the bureau of the director. Two workers were just putting on a new sign with the name of the director.
There Mr. Horn sat with two older gentlemen Max had never seen before, but Ellie seemed to know them, as she greeted them with a polite nod and “Sir Wilbers, Sir Wilbers”:
The introductions were made and Mr. Horn, obviously the new director, explained the reason, why those two gentlemen were present when he, Maximilian Delarmy, officially gave back the credit card.
Sir Reginald Wilbers could not hold back any longer and await the end of Mr. Horns complicated explanations and interrupted him impatiently:
“It was for our bet. Yes, a bet between me and Eduard.”
Max, not understanding what he, Sir Reginald, meant, looked surprised and Sir Eduard continued the explanations of his cousin.
“We had a bet to prove, that money makes money. – And as far as I can see, I have won that bet, as you have money now and had none at the beginning of our little experiment.”
Max still was quite stunned and Ellie pressed his hand holding hers.
“All the trouble for a bet?” Max asked disbelievingly.
Now Sir Reginald continued: “No ordinary bet, but one of utmost importance. – And besides, Eduard, I am not convinced, that you won the bet. You know the company came exactly during the time, while everybody believed him to be poor.”
“But when we did release that bank statement concerning the validity of the card, it did not hurt.”
Now Ellie interrupted the two cousins and explained that she had left Maximilian, when she thought him to be rich and the card had hindered their coming together earlier.
Sir Reginald immediately took that up and stated: “You see, cousin. Money was even a hindrance. It cannot buy and reach everything.”
Sir Eduard mused: “But did being poor bring love then? – We could try it the other way round then for our next bet. – What do you think, cousin, about ‘How a rich man copes with losing everything.’ - Would he find love in the process?”
Max wonderingly shook his head. Ellie, who seemed to already know the antics of the two cousins, smiled at him.
Sir Eduard continued his musings.”Frederic Ellroy would be a good choice for that. – What do you think, cousin?”
“Indeed. Do you know, he has a new editor in chief for his public relations department. She was formerly voluntary assistant at the “Vogue”. – Do you know, that stupid girl indeed sent out the wrong figures to the whole of British press departments?”
“You mean, the one statement which revealed that they had secret book keeping?”
Both cousins laughed brightly before Eduard continued: “Yes indeed, Ellroy would be a good candidate.”
Now both were caught up in preparing the details for their new bet.
“Come, let’s formulate the terms of this new bet ...” Sir Reginald agreed.
Maximilian and Ellie happily left the two gentlemen to their discussion. Their bet had in some way brought them together and nearly separated them as well.
They held no grudge for these two older gentlemen, but gladly left them to further play fate without involving them.
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| Edited - Richard Armitage as Max (Source: RANet.com) |
They went home to have lunch with Ellie’s parents and to discuss the last preparations for the wedding at the following weekend.
It would be a major event, held in the garden of Ellie’s parents.
Paul Reverue had designed a wedding pavilion especially for the event which later would be used as a garden pagoda.
De Solace, absolutely in his element to organise, had also designed a most magnificent wedding dress. As normally a men’s couturier he had loved the chance to design a wedding dress for Ellie and had exceeded all expectations, including his own.
Max, of course, would also wear a special frock designed by him for the wedding, though he still was not allowed to see it, except for parts to take exact measurements.
The co-operation with Faraday Electronics turned out well and Mr. Faraday had use for more of Max’s creative ideas. Mr. Faraday was one of the wedding guests.
Maximilian already had the first contracts with construction companies willing and even eager to take on the new building concept, so he was able to give up his search for a new job and with the advice and help of Ellie’s father had founded his own business “Delarmy Vanes”.
The Happy Ending - all “nice and calm” !
