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William Kane's son now possessed the one person he truly loved. France no longer held any excitement for him, and once he had finished his business there, Abel flew on to Bonn where he completed negotiations for the site on which he would build the first Baron in Germany. He kept in constant touch with George by phone, but Florentyna had not been found, and there was some very disturbing news concerning Henry Osborne.

'He's got himself in heavy debt with the bookmakers again,' said George.

'I warned him last time that I was through bailing him out,' said Abel.

'He's been no dan-w use to anyone since he lost his seat in Congress. I suppose I'll have to deal with the problem when I get back.'

'He's making threats,' said George.

'There's nothing new about that. I've never let them worry me in the past,' said Abel. 'Tell him whatever it is he wants, it will have to wait until my return.'

'When do you expect to be back?' asked George.

'Three weeks, four at the most. I want to look at some sites in Turkey and Egypt. Hilton's already started building there, so I'm going to find out why. Which reminds me, George, the experts tell me you'll never be able to reach me once the plane has landed in the Middle East. Those damned Arabs haven't worked out how to find each other, let alone visitors from foreign countries, so I'll leave you to run everything as usual until you bear from me.'

Abel spent over three weeks looking at sites for new hotels all over the Arab states. His advisors were legion, most of them claiming the title of Prince, each assuring Abel that they had the real influence as a very close personal friend of the key minister, a distant cousin in fact.

However, it always turned out to be the wrong minister or too distant a a cousin. The only solid conclusion Abel reached, after twenty-three days in the dust, sand, and heat with soda but no whisky, was that if his advisors' forecasts on the Middle East oil reserves were accurate, the Gulf States were going to need a lot of hotels in the long term and the Baron Group had to start planning carefully if they were not to be left behind.

Abel managed to find several sites on which to build hotels, through his several princes, but he did not have the time to discover which of them had the real power to fix the officials. He objected to bribery only when the money reached the wrong hands. At least in America, Henry Osborne had always known which officials needed to be taken care of. Abel set up a small office in Bahrain, leaving his local representative in no doubt that the Baron Group was looking for sites throughout the Arab world, but not for princes or the cousins of ministers.

He flew on to Istanbul, where he almost immediately found the perfect place to build a hotel, Overlooking the Bosphorus, only a hundred yards from the old British embassy. He mused as he stood on the barren ground of his latest acquisition, recalling when he had last been here. He clenched his fist and held the wrist of his right hand. He could hear again the cries of the mob - it still made him feel frightened and sick although more than thirty years had passed.

Exhausted from his travels, Abel flew home to New York. During the interminable journey he thought of little but Florentyna, and whether George had found her. As always, George was standing, waiting outside the customs gate to meet him. His expression indicated nothing.

'What news?' asked Abel as he climbed into the back of the Cadillac while the chauffeur put his bags in the trunk.

'Some good, some bad,' said George, as he pressed a button by the side window. A sheet of glass glided up between the front and rear sections of the car. 'Florentyna has been in touch with her mother. She's living in a small apartment in San Francisco!

'Married?' said Abel.

'Yes,' said George.

Neither spoke for some moments.

'And the Kane boy?' asked Abel.

'He's found a job in a bank. It seems a lot of people turned him down because word got around that he didn't finish at the Harvard Business School, and his father wouldn't supply a reference. Not many people will consider employing him if as a consequence they might lose his father's business. He finally was hired as a teller with the Bank of America- Way below what he might have expected with his qualifications.'

'And Florentyna?'

'She's working as the assistant manager in a fashion shop called "Wayout Columbus" near Golden Gate Park. She's also been trying to borrow money from several banks.'

'Why? Is she in any sort of trouble?' asked Abel anxiously.

'No, she's looking for capital to open her own shop!

'How much is she looking for?'

'Only thirty-four thousand dollars which she needs for the lease on a small building on Nob Hill!

Abel sat back thinking about what George had said, his short fingers tapping on the car window. 'See that she gets the money, George. Make it look as if the transaction is an ordinary bank loan and be sure that it's not traceable back to me.' He continued tapping. 'This must always remain simply between the two of us, George.'

'Anything you say, Abel.'

'And keep me informed of every move she makes, however trivial!

'What about him?'

'I'm not interested in him,' said Abel. 'Now what's the bad news?'

'Trouble with Henry Osborne again. It seems he owes money everywhere. I'm also fairly certain his only source of income is now you. He's started making veiled threats about you condoning bribes in the early days when we were setting up the group. Says he's kept all the papers from the first day he met you when he claims he fixed an extra payment after the fire at the old Richmond in Chicago, and he now has a file three inches thick!

'I'll deal with Henry in the morning,' said Abel.

George spent the remainder of the drive into Manhattan bringing Abel up to date on the rest of this group's affairs whichwere all satisfactory, except for a takeover of the Baron in Lagos after yet another coup. That never worried Abel.

The next morning Abel saw Henry Osborne. He looked old and tired, and the once smooth handsome face was now heavily lined. He made no mention of the three-inch thick file.

'I need a little money to get me through a tricky period,' said Henry. 'I've been a bit unlucky.'

'Again, Henry? You should know better at your age. You're a born loser with horses and women. How much do you need this time?'

'Ten thousand would see me through,' said Henry.

'Ten thousand,' said Abel. spitting out the words. 'What do you think I am, a gold mine? It was only five thousand last time.'

'Inflation,' said Henry, trying to laugh.

'This is the last time, do you understand me?' said Abel as he took out his cheque book. 'Come begging once more, Henry, and I'll remove you from the board as a director and turn you out without a penny!

'You're a real friend, Abel. I swear I'll never come back again, I promise you that, never again.' Henry plucked a Romeo y Julliyta from the humidor on the table in front of Abel and lit it. 'Thanks, Abel, you'll never regret your decision.'

Henry left, puffing away at the cigar, as George came in. George waited for the door to be closed. - 'What happened with Henry?'

'I gave in for the last time,' said Abel. 'I don't know why - it cost me ten thousand.'

'Jesus, I feel like the brother of the prodigal son,' said George.

'Because he'll be back again. I'd be willing to put money on that.'

'He'd better not,' said Abel, 'because I'm through with him. Whatever he has done for me in the past, it's now quits. What's the latest news on Florentyna?'

'Florentyna's fine, but you were right about Zaphia : she's been making regular monthly trips to the coast to see them both.'

'Bloody woman,'said Abel.

'Mrs. Kane has been out a couple of times as well,' added George.

'And Kane?'

'No sign of him relenting!'

'That's one thing we have in common,' said Abel.

'I've set up a facility for her with the Crocker National Bank of San Francisco,' continued George. 'She made an approach to the loan officer there less than a week ago. The agreement will appear to her as if it's one of the bank's ordinary loan transactions, with no special favours. In fact they're charging her half a per cent more than usual so there can be no reason for her to be suspicious. What she will never know is that the loan is covered by your guarantee!

"Thanks, George, that's perfect. I'll bet you ten dollars she pays off the loan within two years and never needs to go back for another.'

'I'd want odds of five to one on that,' said George. 'Why don't you try Henry; he's more of a sucker.'

Abel laughed. 'Keep me briefed, George, on everything she's up to, everything!

35

William felt be bad been briefed on everything as he studied Thaddeus Cohen's quarterly report, and only one thing now worried him. Why was Abel Rosnovski still doing nothing with his vast shareholding in Lester's?

William couldn't help remembering that he still owned six per cent of the bank and with two more per cent he could invoke Article Seven of Lester's by-laws. It was hard to believe that Rosnovski still feared S.E.C. regulations, especially as the Eisenhower administration was settled into its second term in the White House and had never shown any interest in pursuing the original enquiry.

William was fascinated to read that Henry Osborne was once again in financial trouble, and that Rosnovski still kept bailing him out. William wondered for how much longer that would go on, and what Henry had on Rosnovski. Was it possible that Rosnovski had enough problems of his own without adding William Kane to them? Cohen's report reviewed progress on the eight new hotels Rosnovski was building across the world.

The London Baron was losing money and the Lagos Baron was out of commission; otherwise he continued to grow in strength. William re-read the attached clipping from the Sunday Express, reporting that Florentyna Rosnovski had not opened the Edinburgh Baron, and he thought about his son. Then he closed the report and locked the file in his safe, convinced there was nothing in it of importance to concern himself with. His chauffeur drove him home.

William regretted his early loss of temper with Richard. Although he did not want the Rosnovski girl in his life, he wished he had not turned his back so irrevocably on his only son. Kate had pleaded on Richard's behalf, and she and William had had a long and bitter argument - so rare in their married life - which they had been unable to resolve. Kate tried every tactic from gentle persuasion to tears, but nothing seemed to move William. Virginia and Lucy also missed their brother. 'There's no one who will be critical of my painting,' said Virginia.

'Don't you mean rude?' asked Kate.

Virginia tried to smile.

Lucy used to lock herself in the bathroom, turn on the water, and write secret letters to Richard, who could never figure out why they always seemed damp. No one dared to mention Richard's name in the house in front of William, but it was causing a sad rift within the family.

He had tried spending more time at the bank, even working round the clock in the hope that it might help. It didn't. The bank was once again making heavy demands on his energy at the very time when he most felt like a rest He had appointed six new vice-presidents over the previous two years, hoping they would take some of the load off his shoulders. The reverse had turned out to be the case. They had created more work and more decisions from him to make and the brightest of them, Jake Thomas, already looked the most likely candidate to take William's place as chairman if Richard did not give up the Rosnovski girl. Although the profits of the bank continued to rise each year, William found he was no longer interested in making money for money's sake. Perhaps he now faced the same problem that Charles Lester had encountered: he had no son to leave his fortune and the chairmanship to now that he had cut Richard out of his life, rewritten his will and dismantled his trust.

In the year of their silver wedding anniversary, William decided to take Kate and the girls for a long holiday to Europe in the hope that it might help to put Richard out of their minds. They flew to London on a Boeing 707 and stayed at the Ritz. The hotel brought back many happy memories of William's first trip to Europe with Kate. They made a sendmental journey to Oxford and showed Virginia and Lucy the university city, and then went on to Stratford-on-Avon to see some Shakespeare: Richard the Third with Laurence Olivier. They could have wished for a king with another name.

On the return journey from Stratford they stopped at the church in Henley-on-Thames where William and Kate had been married. They would have stayed at the Bell Inn again, but they still had only one vacant room.

An argument started between William and Kate in the car on the way back to London as to whether it had been the Reverend Tukesbury or the Reverend Dukesbury who had married them. They came to no satisfactory conclusion before reaching the Ritz. On one thing they were able to agree; the new roof on the parish church had worn well.

William kissed Kate gently when he climbed into bed that night. 'Best five hundred pounds I ever invested,' he said.

They flew on to Italy a week later, having seen every English sight any self-respecting American tourist is meant to visit and many they usually miss. In Rome, the girls drank too much bad Italian wine and made themselves ill on the night of Virginia's birthday, while William ate too much good pasta and put on seven pounds. All of them would have been so much happier if they could have talked of the forbidden topic of Richard. Virginia cried that night and Kate tried to comfort her.

'Why doesn't someone tell Daddy that some things are more important than pride?' Virginia kept asking.

Kate had no reply.

When they returned to New York, William-was refreshed and eager once again to plunge back into his work at the bank. He lost the seven pounds in seven days.