‘How quickly can you pack?’ asked Florentyna.
‘I can’t,’ said Richard. ‘I can never return home now. You pack your things and then we’ll go. I’ve got about a hundred dollars with me and my cello, which is still in the bedroom. How do you feel about marrying a hundred-dollar man?’
‘As much as a salesgirl can hope for, I suppose — and to think I dreamed of being a kept woman. Next you’ll be wanting a dowry.’ Florentyna rummaged in her bag. ‘Well, I’ve got two hundred and twelve dollars and an American Express card. You owe me fifty-six dollars, Richard Kane, but I’ll consider repayment at a dollar a year.’
‘I think I like the idea of a dowry better,’ said Richard.
In thirty minutes Florentyna was packed. Then she sat down at her desk, scrawled a note to her father explaining she would never be willing to see him again unless he would accept Richard. She left the envelope on the table by the side of her bed.
Richard hailed a cab. ‘Idlewild,’ he said after placing Florentyna’s three suitcases and his cello in the trunk.
Once they had reached the airport Florentyna made a phone call. She was relieved when it was answered. When she told Richard the news, he reserved a flight.
The American Airlines Super Constellation 1049 taxied out onto the runway to start its seven-hour flight.
Richard helped Florentyna with her seat belt. She smiled at him.
‘Do you know how much I love you, Mr. Kane?’
‘Yes, I think so — Mrs. Kane,’ he replied.
‘You’ll live to regret your actions tonight.’
He didn’t reply immediately, but just sat motionless, staring in front of him. Then all he said was ‘You will never contact him again.’
She left the room without replying.
He sat alone in a crimson leather chair; time was suspended. He didn’t hear the phone ring several times. The butler knocked quietly on the door and entered the room.
‘A Mr. Abel Rosnovski on the line, sir. Are you in?’
William Kane felt a sharp pain in the pit of his stomach. He knew he had to take the call. He rose from his chair and only by a supreme effort stopped himself from collapsing back into it. He walked over to the phone and picked it up.
‘William Kane speaking.’
‘This is Abel Rosnovski.’
‘Indeed, and when exactly did you think of setting up your daughter with my son? At the time, no doubt, when you failed so conspicuously to cause the downfall of my bank.’
‘Don’t be such a damn...’ Abel checked himself before continuing. ‘I want this marriage stopped every bit as much as you do. I never tried to take away your son. I only learned of his existence today. I love my daughter even more than I hate you and I don’t want to lose her. Can’t we get together and work something out between us?’
‘No,’ said William Kane.
‘What’s the good of raking over the past now, Kane? If you know where they are, perhaps we can stop them. That’s what you want too. Or are you so goddamn proud that you’ll stand by and watch your son marry my girl rather than help?’
William Kane hung up the phone and walked back to the leather chair.
The butler returned. ‘Dinner is served, sir.’
‘No dinner, and I’m not at home.’
‘Yes, sir,’ said the butler, and left the room.
William Kane sat alone. No one disturbed him until eight o’clock the next morning.
Chapter fourteen
When flight 1049 landed at San Francisco’s International Airport, Florentyna hoped it hadn’t been too short notice. Richard had hardly placed a foot on the tarmac when he saw a massive woman charge toward them and throw her arms around Florentyna. Florentyna still couldn’t get her arms around Bella.
‘You don’t give a girl much time, do you? Calling just as you’re boarding the plane.’
‘I’m sorry, Bella, I didn’t know until—’
‘Don’t be silly. Claude and I had been grumbling that we didn’t have anything to do this evening.’
Florentyna laughed and introduced the two of them to Richard.
‘Is that all the luggage you have?’ queried Bella, staring down at the three suitcases and the cello.
‘We had to leave in rather a hurry,’ explained Florentyna.
‘Well, there’s always been a home for you here,’ said Bella, immediately picking up two of the suitcases.
‘Thank God for you, Bella. You haven’t changed a bit,’ said Florentyna.
‘I have in one respect. I’m six months pregnant. It’s just that I’m like a giant panda — nobody’s noticed.’
The two girls dodged in and out of the airport traffic to the parking lot with Richard carrying the cello and Claude following in their wake. During the journey into San Francisco, Bella revealed that Claude had become an associate in the law firm of Pillsbury, Madison and Sutro.
‘Hasn’t he done well?’ she said.
‘And Bella’s the senior physical education teacher at the local high school and they haven’t lost a hockey game since she joined them,’ said Claude with equal pride.
‘And what do you do?’ said Bella, prodding a finger into Richard’s chest. ‘From your luggage I can only assume that you’re an out-of-work musician.
‘Not exactly,’ said Richard, laughing. ‘I’m a would-be banker, and I shall be looking for a job tomorrow.’
‘When are you getting married?’
‘Not for three weeks at least,’ said Florentyna. ‘I want to be married in a church and they’ll have to read the banns first.’
‘So you’ll be living in sin,’ declared Claude as he drove past the ‘San Francisco Welcomes Careful Drivers’ sign. ‘Quite the modern couple. I always wanted to, but Bella wouldn’t hear of it.’
‘And why did you leave New York so suddenly?’ asked Bella, ignoring Claude’s comment.
Florentyna explained how she had met Richard and the historic feud that existed between their fathers. Bella and Claude listened incredulously to the story, both remaining unusually silent, until the car came to a halt.
‘This is our home,’ said Claude. He put the brakes on firmly and left the car in first gear.
Florentyna got out on the side of a steep hill not quite overlooking the bay.
‘We go higher up the hill when Claude becomes a partner,’ said Bella. ‘But this will have to do for now.’
‘It’s fantastic,’ said Florentyna as they entered the little house. She smiled when she saw hockey sticks in the umbrella stand.
‘I’ll take you straight to your room so you can unpack.’ Bella led her two guests up a small winding staircase to the spare room on the top floor. ‘It may not be the Presidential Suite at the Baron, but it’s better than joining the beatniks on the streets.’
It was some weeks before Florentyna discovered that Bella and Claude had spent the afternoon lugging their double bed up the stairs to the spare room and carrying the two singles back down so that Richard and Florentyna could spend their first night together.
It was 4 A.M. New York time when Florentyna and Richard finally climbed into bed.
‘Well, now that Grace Kelly is no longer available, I suppose I’m stuck with you. Although I don’t know, I think Claude may be right. Perhaps we should live in sin.’
‘If you and Claude lived together in sin, no one in San Francisco would even notice.’
‘Any regrets so far?’
‘Yes. I always hoped I’d end up with a man who slept on the left-hand side of the bed.’
In the morning, after a Bella-type breakfast, Florentyna and Richard scoured the papers for jobs.
‘We must try and find something quickly. I don’t think our money will last for more than about a month,’ said Florentyna.