No sooner had Florentyna completed her first year in Congress than she complained to Richard that she would soon have to start campaigning again.
‘What a crazy system that sends you to the House for only two years; no sooner have you settled into the place than you have to recycle the campaign bumper stickers.’
‘How would you change it?’ asked Richard.
‘Well, senators are in a far better position, coming up for election only every six years, so I think I would make congressional terms at least four years in length.’
When she repeated her grouse to Edward in Chicago, he was sympathetic but pointed out that in her case she didn’t look as if she would have any real opposition from the Democrats or the Republicans.
‘What about Ralph Brooks?’
‘He seems to have his eye firmly set on the State’s Attorney’s office since his recent marriage. Perhaps with his wife’s social background she doesn’t want to see him in Washington politics.’
‘Don’t believe it,’ said Florentyna. ‘He’ll be back.’
In September, Florentyna flew to New York and, together with Richard, drove William up to Concord, New Hampshire, to start his fifth-form year at St. Paul’s. The car was packed with more stereo equipment, Rolling Stones records and athletic gear than books. Annabel was now in her first year at the Madeira School, just outside Washington, so she could be near her mother but still showed no interest in wanting to follow Florentyna to Radcliffe.
Florentyna was disappointed that Annabel’s sole interests always seemed to center on boys and parties. Not once during the holidays did she discuss her progress at school or even open a book. She avoided her brother’s company and would even change the subject whenever William’s name came up in conversation. It became more obvious every day that she was jealous of her brother’s achievements.
Carol did the best she could to keep her occupied, but on two occasions Annabel disobeyed her father and once returned home from a date hours after she had agreed.
Florentyna was relieved when the time came for Annabel to return to school as she decided not to overreact to her daughter’s holiday escapades. She hoped it was nothing more than an adolescent stage Annabel was passing through.
Struggling to survive in a man’s world was nothing new for Florentyna and she began her second year in Congress with considerably more confidence than a year earlier. Life at the Baron had been a little sheltered in comparison with politics. After all, she had been the chairman of the Group and Richard had always been there by her side. Edward was quick to point out that perhaps having to fight a little harder than any man was no bad preparation for the time when she would have to face new rivals. When Richard asked her how many of her colleagues she considered capable of holding down a place on the board of the Baron Group, she had to admit that there were very few.
Florentyna enjoyed her second year far more than her first, and there were many highlights: in February she successfully sponsored a bill which exempted from any taxation scientific publications selling fewer than ten thousand copies per issue. In April she fought several provisions in the President’s budget proposals and in May she and Richard received an invitation to a reception at the White House for Queen Elizabeth II of England. But the most pleasing aspect of the whole year was the feeling that she was actually influencing issues that affected her constituents’ lives.
The invitation that gave her the most pleasure that year came from Transportation Secretary William Coleman to see the tall ships entering New York Harbor in honor of the Bicentennial. It reminded her that America also had a history she could be proud of.
In all, it was a memorable year for Florentyna, the only sad event, the death of her mother, who had been afflicted with respiratory trouble for many months. More than a year earlier, Zaphia had dropped out of Chicago life, at the very moment when she had been dominating the society columns. She had told Florentyna as far back as 1968, when she had brought the revolutionary Saint-Laurent show to the Windy City, ‘These new fashions simply don’t compliment a woman of my age.’ After that she was rarely seen at any of the major charity events and her name soon began to disappear from the embossed note paper used for such galas. She was happy to spend hours listening to stories about her grandchildren and she often offered a word of motherly advice that her daughter had grown to respect.
Florentyna had wanted a quiet funeral. As she stood by the grave with her son and daughter on each side of her, listening to the words of Father O’Reilly, she realized that she could no longer hope for privacy, even in death. As the coffin was lowered into the grave the flash bulbs continued to pop until the earth had completely covered the wooden casket and the last of the Rosnovskis was buried.
During the final few weeks before the Presidential election, Florentyna spent more of her time in Chicago, leaving Janet in Washington to run the office. After Representative Wayne Hays admitted paying a member of his staff $14,000 a year in salary even though she could not type a word and did not answer the phone, Janet and Louise asked for a raise.
‘Yes, but Miss Ray is supplying a service for Mr. Hays that I have not yet found necessary in my office,’ said Florentyna.
‘But the problem in this office is the other way around,’ said Louise.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Florentyna.
‘We spend our life being propositioned by members who think we’re a Capitol Hill perk.’
‘How many members have propositioned you, Louise?’ said Florentyna, laughing.
‘Over a hundred,’ said Louise.
‘And how many did you accept?’
‘Three,’ said Louise, grinning.
‘And how many propositioned you?’ said Florentyna, turning to Janet.
‘Three,’ said Janet.
‘And how many did you accept?’
‘Three,’ said Janet.
When the three women had stopped laughing, Florentyna said, ‘Well, perhaps Joan Mondale was right. What the Democrats do to their secretaries, the Republicans do to the country. You both get a raise.’
Edward turned out to be accurate about her selection; she had been unopposed as the Democratic candidate, and the primary for the Ninth District was virtually a steal. Stewart Lyle, who ran again as the Republican candidate, admitted privately to her that he now had little chance. ‘Re-elect Kane’ stickers seemed to be everywhere.
Florentyna looked forward to a new session of Congress with a Democratic President in the White House. The Republicans had selected Jerry Ford after a tough battle with Governor Reagan, and the Democrats had chosen Jimmy Carter, a man she had barely heard of until the New Hampshire primary.
Ford’s primary battle against Ronald Reagan did not enhance the President’s cause and the American people had still not forgiven him for pardoning Nixon. On the personal front, Ford seemed incapable of avoiding naïve mistakes such as bumping his head on helicopter doors and falling down airplane steps. And during a television debate with Carter, Florentyna sat horrified when he suggested that there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. ‘Tell the Polish people that,’ Florentyna said indignantly to the small screen.
The Democratic candidate committed his share of mistakes as well, but in the end, it seemed to Richard that Carter’s image as an anti-Washington evangelical Christian, when viewed against the problems Ford had inherited from his links with Nixon, would be enough to give Carter the election by a small margin.