第 18 页

'Milly Preston has already given her approval, Alan?'

'Yes. Hasn't she mentioned the matter to you?'

Anne did not reply immediately. 'What is your opinion?' she asked finally.

'Well, I haven't seen Henry's accounts, because he only started his company eighteen months ago and he doesn't bank with us, so I have no idea what expenditure is over income for the current year and what return he is predicting for 1923.'

'You realise that during the last eighteen months I've given Henry five hundred thousand of my own money?' said Anne.

'My chief teller informs me any time a large amount of -cash is withdrawn from any account. I didn't know that was what you were using the money for, and it was none of my business, Anne. That money was left to you by Richard and is yours to spend as you see fit.

'Now, in the case of the interest from the family trust, that is a different matter. If you decide to withdraw five hundred thousand dollars to invest in Henry's firm, then the bank will have to inspect Henry's books, because the money would be considered as another investment for William's portfolio. Richard did not give the trustees the authority to make loans, only to invest on William's behalf. I have already explained this situation to Henry, and if we were to go ahead and make this investment, the trustees would have to decide what percentage of Henrys company would be an appropriate exchange for the five hundred thousand.

William, of course, is always aware what we are doing with his trust income, because we saw no reason not to comply with his request that he receive a quarterly investment programme statement from the bank in the same way as all the trustees do. I have no doubt in my own mind that he will have his own ideas on the subject which he will be fully aware of after he receives the next quarterly report.

'It may amuse you to know, that since William's sixteenth birthday he has been -sending me bark his own opinions on every investment we make. To begin with I looked on them with the passing interest of a benevolent guardian. Of late, I have been studying them with considerable respect.

When William takes his place on the board of Kane and Cabot, this bank may well turn out to be too small for him.

'I've never been asked for advice on William's trust before,' said Anne forlornly.

'Well, my dear, you do see the reports that the bank sends you on the first day of every quarter, and it has always been in your power as a trustee to query any of the investments we make on William's behalf.'

Alan Lloyd took a slip of paper from his pocket, and remained silent until the sommelier had finished pouring the Nuits Saint Georges. Once he was out of earshot, Alan continued.

'William has over twenty-one million invested in the bank at four and a half per cent until his twenty-first birthday. We reinvest the interest for him each quarter in stocks and shares. We have never in the past invested in a private company. It may surprise you to hear, Anne, that we now carry out this reinvestment on a fifty-fifty basis: fifty per cent following the bank's advice and fifty per cent following the suggestions put forward by William. At the moment we are a little ahead of him, much to the satisfaction of Tony Simmons, our investment director, whom William has promised a Rolls-Royce in any year that he can beat the boy by over ten per cent!'

'But where would William get hold of the ten thousand dollars for a Rolls-Royce if he lost the bet - when he's not allowed to touch the money in his trust until he is twentyone?'

'I do not know the answer to that, Anne. What I do know is he would be far too proud to come to us direct and I am certain he would not have made the wager if he could not honour it. Have you by any chance seen his famous ledger book lately?'

'The one given to him by his grandmothers?'

Alan Lloyd nodded.

'No, I haven't seen it since he went away to school. I didn't know it still existed!'

'It still exists and I would,' said the banker, 'give a montys wages to know what the credit column in that ledger book now stands at. I suppose you are aware that he banks that money with Lester's in New York, and not with us? They don't take on private accounts at under ten thousand dollars. I'm also fairly certain they wouldn't make an exception, even for the son of Richard Kane.'

'The son of Richard Kane.' said Anne.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude, Anne!'

'No, no, there is no doubt he is the son of Richard Kane. Do YOU know he has never asked me for a penny since his twelfth birthday?' She paused. 'I think I should warn you, Alan, that he won't take kindly to being told he has to invest five hundred thousand dollars of his trust money in Henry's company!

'They don't get on well?' enquired Alan, his eyebrows rising.

'I'm afraid not,' said Anne.

'I'm sorry to hear that. It certainly would make the transaction more complicated if William really stood out against the whole scheme. Although he has no authority over the trust until he is twenty-one, we have already discovered through sources of our own that he is not, beyond going to an independent lawyer to find out his legal position.'

'Good God,' said Anne, 'you can't be serious.'

'Oh, yes, quite serious, but there's nothing for you to worry about. To be frank, we at the bank were all rather impressed and once we realised where the enquiry was coming from, we released information we would normally have kept very much to ourselves. For some private reason he obviously didn't want to approach us directly!'

'Good heavens,' said Anne, 'what will he be like when he's thirty?'

'That will depend,' said Alan, 'on whether he is lucky enough to fall in love with someone as lovely as you. That was always Richard's strength.'

'You are an old flatterer, Alan. Can we leave the problem of the five hundred thousand until I have had a chance to discuss it with Henry?'

'Of course, my dear. I told you I had come to seek your advice!'

Alan ordered coffee and took Anne's hand gently in his. 'And do remember to take care of yourself, Anne. You're far more important than the fate of a few thousand dollars.'

When Anne returned home from lunch she immediately started to worry about the other two letters she had received that morning. Of one thing she was now certain, after all she had learned about her own son from Alan Lloyd; she would be wise to give in gracefully and let William spend the forthcoming holidays with his friend, Matthew Lester.

Henry and Milly's relationship raised a problem to which she was unable to compose so simple a solution. She sat in the maroon leather chair, Richard's favourite, looking out through the bay window on to a beautiful bed of red and white roses, seeing nothing, only thinking. Anne always took a long time to make a decision, but once she had, she seldom went back on it.

Henry came home earlier than usual that evening, and she couldn't help wondering why. She soon found out.

'I hear you had lunch with Alan Lloyd today,' he said as he entered the room.

'Who told you that, Henry?,'

'I have spies everywhere,' he said, laughing.

'Yes, Alan invited me to lunch. He wanted to know how I felt about the bank investing five hundred thousand dollars of Williams trust money in your company!'

'What did you say?' asked Henry, trying not to sound anxious.

'I told him I wanted to discuss the matter with you first, but why in heavens name didn't you let me know earlier that you had approached the bank, Henry? I felt such a fool hearing the whole thing from Alan for the first time.'

'I didn't think you took any interest in business, my dear, and I only found out by sheer accident that you, Alan Lloyd and Mlly Preston are all trustees, and each have a vote on William's investment income!'

'How did you find out,' asked Anne, 'when I wasn't aware of the situation myself?'

'You don't read the small print, my darling. As a matter of fact, I didn't myself until just recently. Quite by chance Milly Preston told me the details of the trust, and as William's godmother, it seems she is also a trustee. It came as quite a surprise. Now let's see if we can turn the position to our advantage. Milly says she wiil back me, if you agree.

The mere sound of Milly's name made Anne feel uneasy.

'I don't think we ought to touch William's money,' she said. 'I've never looked upon the trust as having anything to do with me. I would be much happier leaving well enough alone and just continue letting the bank reinvest the interest as it has always done in the past.'

'Why be satisfied with the bank's investment programme when I am on to such a good thing with this city hospital contract? William would make a lot of money out of my company. Surely Alan went along with that?'

'I'm not certain how he felt. He was his usual discreet self though he certainly said the contract would be an excellent one to win and that you had a good chance of being awarded it.'

'Exactly!

'But he did want to see your books before he came to any firm conclusions, and he also wondered what had happened to my five hundred thousand!'

'Our five hundred thousand, my darling, is doing very well as you will soon discover. I'll send the books around to him tomorrow morning so that he can inspect them for himself. I can assure you that he will be very impressed.'

'I hope so, Henry, for both our sakes,' said Anne. Wow lees wait and see what opinion he forms; you know how much I have always trusted Alan.'

'But not me,'said Henry.

'Oh, no, Henry, I didn't mean...'

'I was only teasing. I assumed you would trust your own husband!'

Anne felt the tearfulness that she had always suppressed in front of Richard welling up. For Henry she didn't even try to hold it back.

'I hope I can. I've never had to worry about money before, and it's all too much to cope with just now. The baby always makes me feel so tired and depressed!

Henry's manner changed quickly to one of solicitude. 'I know, my darling. I don't want you ever to have to bother your head with business matters; I can always handle that side of things. Look, why don't you go to bed early and I'll bring you up some supper on a tray? That will give me a chance to go back to the office and pick up those files I need to show Alan in the morning.'

Anne complied, but once Henry had left, she made no attempt to sleep, tired as she was, but sat up in bed reading Sinclair Lewis. She knew it would take Henry about fifteen minutes to reach his office, so she waited a full twenty and then called his number. The ringing tone continued for almost a minute.

Anne tried a second time twenty minutes later; still no one answered the phone. She kept trying every twenty minutes, but no one ever came on the line. Henry's remark about trust began to echo bitterly in her head.

When Henry eventually returned home after midnight, he appeared apprehensive at finding Anne sitting up in bed. She was still reading Sinclair Lewis.

'You shouldn't have stayed awake for me.'

He gave her a warm kiss. Anne thought she could smell perfume - or was she becoming overly suspicious?

'I had to stay on a little later than I had expected since I couldn't immediately find all the papers Alan would require. Damn silly secretary filed some of them under the wrong headings.

'It must be lonely sitting there in the office all on your own in the middle of the night,' said Anne.

'Oh, it's not that bad if you have a worthwhile job to do,' said Henry, climbing into bed and settling against Anne's back. 'At least there's one thing to be said for it, you can get a lot more done when the phone isn't continually interrupting you.'

He was asleep in minutes. Anne lay awake, now resolved to carry through the plan she had made that afternoon.

When Henry had left for work after breakfast the next morning - not that Anne was sure where Henry went to work any more - she studied the Boston Globe and did a little research among the small advertisements. Then she picked up the phone and made an appointment which took her to the south side of Boston, a few minutes before midday. Anne was shocked by the dinginess of the buildings. She had never previously visited the southern district of the city, and in normal circumstances she could have gone through her entire life without even knowing such places existed.

A small wooden staircase littered with matches, cigarette ends and rubbish created its own paper chase to a door with a frosted glass window on which appeared in large black letters, 'Glen Ricardo', and underneath 'Private Detective (Registered in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts)'. Anne knocked quietly.

'Come right in, the door's open,' shouted a deep, hoarse voice.

Anne entered. The man seated behind the desk, his legs stretched over its surface, glanced up from what might have been a girly magazine. His cigar stub nearly fell out of his mouth when he caught sight of Anne. It was the first time a mink coat had ever walked into his office.

'Good morning,' he said, rising quickly. 'My name is Glen Ricardo.' He leant across the desk and offered a hairy, nicotine-stained hand to Anne. She took it, glad that she was wearing gloves. 'Do you have an appointment?'

Ricardo asked, not that he cared whether she did or not. He was always available for a consultation with a mink coat.

'Yes, I do.'

'Ah, then you must be Mrs. Osborne. Can I take your coat?'

'I prefer to keep it on,' said Anne, unable to see anywhere Ricardo could hang it except on the floor.

'Of course, of course!'

Anne eyed Ricardo covertly as he sat back in his seat and lit a new cigar. She did not care for his light green suit, the motley-coloured tie, or his thickly greased hair. It was only the fact that sbe doubted if it would be better anywhere else that kept her seated.

'Now what's the problem?' said Ricardo, who was sharpening an already short pencil with a blunt knife. The wooden shavings dropped evdrywhere except into the wastepaper basket. 'Have you lost your dog, your jewellery, or your husband?'