‘I’m glad you’re going to get something out of the deal,’ said Abel, with a grin.
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I’m pleased to be working with you, Mr Fenton.’
‘Your principal has also placed two hundred and fifty thousand dollars on deposit with the bank, to be used for the day-to-day expenses of the hotels over the next few months. This will also be regarded as a loan at four per cent. You are to advise me if this amount turns out to be insufficient. However, I believe it would enhance your standing with my client if you found the two hundred and fifty thousand to be enough.’
‘It’s more than enough,’ said Abel.
‘Excellent,’ said Fenton as he opened a desk drawer and produced a large Cuban cigar.
‘Do you smoke?’
‘Yes,’ said Abel, who had never smoked a cigar before in his life.
Abel coughed himself down La Salle Street all the way back to the Stevens. David Maxton was standing proprietorially in the foyer when he arrived. Abel stubbed out his half-finished cigar with some relief and walked over to him.
‘Mr Rosnovski, you look a happy man this morning.’
‘I am, sir, and I’m only sorry to have to tell you that I won’t be working for you as the manager of this hotel.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that, Mr Rosnovski, but frankly that news doesn’t surprise me.’
‘Thank you for everything,’ said Abel, injecting as much feeling as he could into the words and the handshake that accompanied them.
He went into the dining room in search of Zaphia, but she hadn’t come on duty yet. He took the elevator to his room, relit the cigar, took a cautious puff and waited a moment before calling Kane and Cabot. A secretary put him through to William Kane.
‘Mr Kane, I have found it possible to raise the money required to take over the Richmond Group. A Mr Curtis Fenton of Continental Trust will be in touch with you later today to provide you with the details. There will therefore be no necessity to place the hotels for sale on the open market.’
There was a short pause, during which Abel thought with satisfaction how galling this news must be to William Kane.
‘Thank you for informing me, Mr Rosnovski. May I say how delighted I am that you’ve found someone to back you. I wish you every success for the future.’
‘Which is more than I wish you, Mr Kane.’
Abel put the phone down, lay on his bed and thought about that future.
‘One day,’ he promised the ceiling, ‘I am going to make you want to jump out of a hotel bedroom on the seventeenth floor.’ He picked up the phone again and asked the girl on the switchboard to get him Mr Henry Osborne at Great Western Casualty.
31
WILLIAM WAS more amused than annoyed by Rosnovski’s belligerent attitude. He was sorry he had been unable to persuade the bank to support the proud Pole who believed so strongly that he could turn the Richmond Group around. He fulfilled his remaining responsibilities by informing the Finance Committee that Abel Rosnovski had found a backer and preparing the legal documents for the takeover of the hotels, before closing the bank’s file on the Richmond Group.
A few days later Matthew Lester arrived in Boston to take up his position as manager of the bank’s investment portfolio. His father had made no secret of the fact that he felt any experience gained in a rival establishment would be a valuable part of Matthew’s long-term preparation to be chairman of Lester’s. William’s workload was instantly halved when Matthew joined him, although his time became even more fully occupied. He found himself dragged, protesting in mock horror, onto tennis courts and into swimming pools at every available free moment; only Matthew’s suggestion of a ski trip to Vermont brought a determined ‘No’ from William, but the increased activity at least served to distract him from his impatience to see Kate again.
Matthew was frankly incredulous. ‘I must meet the woman who can make William Kane daydream at a board meeting that’s discussing whether the bank should buy more gold.’
‘Wait till you see her, Matthew. I think you’ll agree she’s pure gold.’
‘I believe you. I just don’t want to be the one to tell my sister. She still thinks you’re waiting for her.’
William laughed. He’d quite forgotten about Susan Lester.
The little pile of letters from Kate, which had been growing weekly, lay in a locked drawer of William’s bureau in the Red House. He read them over again and again, until he knew them virtually by heart. At last the one he had been waiting for arrived, appropriately dated.
Buckhurst Park
14 February 1930
Dearest William,
Finally I have packed up, sold off, given away or otherwise disposed of everything left here, and I shall be coming up to Boston on the nineteenth. I am almost frightened at the thought of seeing you again. What if this whole marvelous enchantment bursts like a bubble in the cold winter of the Eastern Seaboard? Dear God, I hope not. I can’t be sure how I would have gotten through these lonely months without your support.
Looking forward to seeing you,
Love,
Kate
The night before she was due to arrive, William promised himself that he would not rush her into anything that either of them might later regret. As he told Matthew, it was impossible to assess the extent to which her feelings for him might have been due to her emotional vulnerability after her husband’s death.
‘I’ve never heard such rubbish,’ said Matthew. ‘You’re in love, and that’s an end of it.’
The moment William spotted Kate getting off the train from Miami and saw the infectious smile that lit up her face, he abandoned his cautious intentions. He pushed through the throng of travellers and took her in his arms.
‘Welcome home, Kate.’
He was about to kiss her when, to his surprise, she drew back.
‘William, I don’t think you’ve met my parents.’
That night William dined with the Higginson family, and discovered how beautiful Kate would be when she was an old woman. They grabbed every moment they could together, whenever William could escape from the bank’s business and Matthew’s tennis racquet. When Matthew met her for the first time, he offered William all his gold shares in exchange for one Kate.
‘I never undersell,’ replied William. ‘And unlike you, Matthew, I have never been interested in quantity - only quality.’
‘Then I insist you tell me,’ demanded Matthew, ‘where will I find such a rare commodity?’
‘In the liquidation department,’ replied William.
‘Turn her into a personal asset, William, and quickly, because if you don’t, you can be sure someone else will.’
Abel stubbed out the Corona for a second time, swearing that he would not light another cigar until he had cleared the $2 million that he needed for complete control of the Richmond Group. This was no time for Cuban cigars, while the Dow Jones Index was at its lowest point in history and long soup lines were forming in every city in America. He gazed at the ceiling and considered his priorities. First, he needed to salvage the best staff from the Chicago Richmond.
He climbed off the bed, put on his jacket and walked across to the Richmond annexe, where most of those who had not found employment since the fire were still living. Abel gave everyone he trusted, and who was willing to leave Chicago, a job in one of the other ten hotels. He made it clear that in these difficult times their jobs were secure only if the group started to show a profit. He was aware that all the other hotels were being run as dishonestly as the old Chicago Richmond had been. That, he assured them, would change, and change quickly. He put his three former assistant managers in charge of the Dallas Richmond, the Miami Richmond and the St Louis Richmond, and appointed new assistant managers for the remaining seven hotels - in Houston, Mobile, Charleston, Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans and Louisville.
Abel set up his headquarters in the Chicago Richmond annexe, and decided to open a small restaurant on the ground floor. It made sense to be based near his backer and his banker rather than to settle in one of the hotels in the South. And, just as important, Zaphia was in Chicago, and Abel was beginning to feel confident that, given time, he could replace the pimply youth.
By the time he was ready to travel to New York to recruit more staff, Zaphia assured him she no longer had any interest in the pimply boyfriend. The night before his departure they made love for the second time. After their first experience in the lifeboat, his attentive care and gentle expertise took her by surprise.
‘How many girls have there been since the Black Arrow?’ she teased.
‘None that I really cared for,’ he replied.
‘Enough of them for you to forget me.’
‘I never forgot you,’ he said untruthfully. He leant over and kissed her again, as it wasn’t a conversation he wished to continue.
Kane and Cabot’s net loss in 1929 ended up at over $7 million, which turned out to be about par for a bank its size. Many smaller establishments had gone under, and William found himself conducting a sustained holding operation that kept him under constant pressure.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the United States on a ticket of relief, recovery and reform, William feared that the New Deal would have little to offer Kane and Cabot. Business picked up slowly, and William found himself planning tentatively for expansion.
Meanwhile, Tony Simmons completed several successful takeovers in London, and made a better than expected profit for Kane and Cabot during his first two years. His achievements looked all the more impressive when measured against those of William, who had barely been able to break even during the recession.
In the autumn Alan Lloyd called Simmons back to Boston to make a full report to the board on the bank’s activities in London. At that meeting Simmons was able to announce that the year’s figures for the London office would show a profit of over a million dollars for the first time. He also let it be known that he intended to put his name forward for the chairmanship when Alan retired. William was completely taken by surprise, as he had dismissed Simmons’s chances when he had disappeared across the Atlantic under a small cloud. It seemed inexplicable that that cloud had been blown away, not by Simmons’s acuity, but simply because the British economy had been less paralysed than America’s. The abruptness of Tony Simmons’s return to favour left William with little time in which to persuade the board that they should support him before his opponent’s momentum for the chairmanship became unstoppable.
Kate listened sympathetically to William’s problems, often offering a shrewd observation, and only occasionally admonishing him for being too gloomy. Matthew, acting as William’s eyes and ears, reported that the board was split between those who considered William too young to hold such a responsible position, and those who blamed Simmons for the extent of the bank’s losses in 1929. It seemed that most of the non-executive members of the board, who had not worked directly with William, were more influenced by the age difference between the two contenders than by any other factor. Again and again Matthew heard the words, ‘William’s time will come.’ Once, tentatively, he played the role of devil’s advocate.
‘With your holdings in the bank, William, you could appoint three more members of the board and get yourself comfortably elected.’
William dismissed the idea as unworthy of consideration. He wanted to become chairman solely on merit. That, after all, was how his father had gained the position, and he knew that it was nothing less than Kate would expect of him.
In January 1932, Alan Lloyd circulated to every board member notice of a meeting that would be held on his sixty-fifth birthday. Its sole purpose, he informed them, was to elect his successor. As the day for the crucial meeting drew nearer, Matthew found himself carrying the investment department almost single-handedly, while William devoted himself to his campaign to capture the chairmanship.
When Abel arrived in New York, the first thing he did was to look up George Novak. He was not surprised to find him out of work and living in a garret on East Third Street. Abel had forgotten what the houses in this neighbourhood, some shared by twenty families, were like. The smell of stale food permeated every room, toilets didn’t flush and beds were slept in by at least three different people every twenty-four hours. The bakery had been closed down, and George’s uncle was now employed in a large mill on the outskirts of New York. The mill couldn’t afford to take on George as well. When Abel offered him a job, George leapt at the chance to join his old friend at the Richmond Group - in any capacity.
Abel recruited several other Poles who George assured him would work any hours, and despite their personal difficulties were scrupulously honest, among them a pastry chef, a desk clerk and a headwaiter. Most hotels on the East Coast had cut their staff to a bare minimum, which had made it easy for him to pick up experienced people, three of whom had worked with him at the Plaza.
The following week, Abel and George set out on a tour of all the hotels in the group. Abel asked Zaphia to join them, even offering her the chance to work in any hotel she chose, but she refused to leave Chicago, the only place in America where she felt at home. As a compromise, she moved across to Abel’s rooms at the Richmond annexe whenever he was in Chicago. George, who had acquired middle-class morals along with his American citizenship, pressed the advantages of matrimony on Abel, although he didn’t seem to have heeded the advice himself.
It came as no surprise to Abel that the other hotels in the group were still being incompetently, and in most cases dishonestly, run, but most of the staff, fearful for their jobs in a time of widespread unemployment, welcomed him as the potential saviour of the group’s fortunes. He did not find it necessary to fire staff in the grand manner he had adopted when he had first arrived in Chicago. In some cases Abel found that simply moving personnel from one hotel to another stopped the rot. Most of those who knew of his reputation and feared the reprisals had already departed. But some heads still had to roll, and they were invariably attached to the necks of employees who had worked for the group for years and who could not, or would not, change their ways simply because Davis Leroy was no longer in charge.
All seventeen members of the board were present to celebrate Alan Lloyd’s sixty-fifth birthday. The meeting was opened by the chairman, who delivered a farewell speech lasting only fourteen minutes, which William thought would never come to an end. Tony Simmons was nervously tapping a yellow legal pad with his pen, occasionally glancing across at William. Neither was listening to Alan’s words. At last Alan sat down, to loud applause, or as loud as is appropriate for sixteen Boston bankers. When the clapping had died away, Alan rose for the last time as chairman of Kane and Cabot.
