Worthy Opponents

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Dedication Other Titles About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List v vi 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 237 238 239 240 241 242 vii iii 245 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Worthy Opponents is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Danielle Steel
 All rights reserved.
 Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
 Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the DP colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Steel, Danielle, author.
 Title: Worthy opponents : a novel / Danielle Steel.
 Description: New York : Delacorte Press, [2023]
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022039202 (print) | LCCN 2022039203 (ebook) | ISBN 9781984821805 (hardback ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781984821812 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
 Classification: LCC PS3569.T33828 W67 2023 (print) | LCC PS3569.T33828 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23/eng/20220818
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022039202
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022039203
 Ebook ISBN 9781984821812
 randomhousebooks.com
 Book design by Sara Bereta, adapted for ebook
 Cover image: © mila_hu/Shutterstock
 ep_prh_6.0_142781534_c0_r0
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 Chapter 2
 
 
 Chapter 3
 
 
 Chapter 4
 
 
 Chapter 5
 
 
 Chapter 6
 
 
 Chapter 7
 
 
 Chapter 8
 
 
 Chapter 9
 
 
 Chapter 10
 
 
 Chapter 11
 
 
 Chapter 12
 
 
 Chapter 13
 
 
 Chapter 14
 
 
 Chapter 15
 
 
 Chapter 16
 
 
 Dedication
 By Danielle Steel
 About the Author
 
 
 _142781534_
 
 
 Chapter 1
 Spencer Brooke was a small, trim woman, with a subtle but very definite sense of style. She stood out in a crowd, and was noticeably chic. She wore her blond hair in a bun at work and loose when she was at home. At thirty-seven, she ran a major enterprise. She was the owner and CEO of one of the most respected department stores in New York, Brooke and Son, more commonly known as Brooke’s. Although her more distant ancestors and her mother’s family had all been bankers for generations, her father’s family had been in the retail business. She was the fourth generation. It was in her blood. She loved the store and everything about it, and had ever since she was a child. She loved the smell of it, of muted perfume, the moment she walked through the door, and the elegance of the merchandise they carried, which made her proud whenever she saw it.
 She was fourteen years old when her grandfather, Thornton Brooke, told her that one day she would run the store. It had never occurred to her before, but from then on, she had taken special pride in it. Her grandfather was eighty years old then. He taught her the things she would need to know one day, and would later quiz her on the information he’d shared with her. Brooke’s in its present form had been Thornton’s dream as a young man.
 Thornton’s father, Jeremiah, had owned the largest, most successful department store in New York. He had established it with his own inherited fortune in 1920, with a partner. They called it Johnson and Brooke, and when Jeremiah bought out his partner a year later, he kept the name. They had the finest elite customers in the city. All of Jeremiah’s male relatives before him had been bankers, and his own father was skeptical when Jeremiah founded the store with the family money he had inherited. Jeremiah had an unfailing instinct for and attraction to retail. He knew just what both men and women wanted to buy, and he supplied it, bringing in the highest quality merchandise from Europe, and beautifully designed pieces from all the luxury brands in the States.
 Thornton was nine years old when suddenly everything changed. He didn’t understand what had happened at first. The family moved from their mansion on Fifth Avenue to a small apartment in Gramercy Park. His grandfather’s bank closed its doors, and he heard his parents speak of the closing of the store in whispers. Jeremiah gave up his beloved store nine years after he’d opened it in the