“I hope you’re right James but I’m not going to dwell on it. Listen I need to get going. I may call you later but if not I’ll definitely call tomorrow morning.”

“OK. Give Marcus my regards and give Peggy my love. Tell her I can’t wait to see her. Call me if you need anything OK?”

“I will. Bye James.”

***

Bette went into the kitchen and started preparing the lunch for herself and Marcus. Tina was right the kitchen appliances were barely used and most of the pots and pans were brand new. After spending time with Valerie and Tina preparing meals together she found that she actually liked cooking and would be good at it if she just made the effort. She decided to look into cooking classes or maybe she would ask Douglas to give her some private lessons.  She was getting really excited at the prospect of living in New York for a while and working on the Peggy Peabody collection. She was intimately familiar with Peggy’s private collection and she already had ideas of which pieces should be kept, donated or sold.

She also knew of some private collectors among her clientele that would jump at the chance to own some of the pieces. She had no doubt that she could get top dollar selling them outright but she would also ask Peggy about auctioning some pieces to raise money for charity.

Bette was done setting the table and had the food out when the buzzer rang announcing Marcus’s arrival. She told the doorman to send him up.  When Bette opened the door she was surprised to see that Marcus wasn’t alone.

“Hi Bette. I’d like you to meet my friend Francesca Romano. Francesca this is Bette Porter.”

“Bette it’s so nice to meet you. Marcus has told me so much about you that I feel like I already know you.”

“It’s nice to meet you as well Francesca but I can’t say that Marcus has mentioned you to me. Why don’t you come in and have a seat. I’ll set another place for lunch.”

“Bette sorry I didn’t mention Francesca before. I wasn’t sure if I should bring her. I was going to talk to you alone first but we decided we should do this together.”