The Beaufort Sisters. Jon Cleary
do you mean?’
‘We could lose a lot. This, for instance – even a lot more.’ He gestured at the yard. ‘But we could never lose everything. He was telling me yesterday. He has exactly fifty-two pounds in the bank and that’s all.’
Her disappointment in him was giving way to relief for herself. My character is no better than his. ‘I don’t want to stay here if you don’t. But what will you do?’
He had done a lot of thinking: that was evident as soon as he spoke. ‘I could go to work for your father again.’
‘Back in Kansas City?’ She tried to keep the excitement out of her voice.
‘Not just yet, perhaps later. I could work for the oil company now it’s set up an office in London. I don’t know what I’d do, but I’m sure your father could find something for me.’ There was just a hint of sarcasm in his voice, as if he were adding salt to his own wounds.
‘We’ll have to call him right away. They’re leaving Paris for Cherbourg tomorrow, to catch the ship.’ She was pushing him, but she was confident now she was taking no risk.
They called Lucas that afternoon at the Crillon in Paris. ‘Sure, I can find a place for you,’ said Lucas. ‘I’m sorry about the boatyard. You sure you want to come and work for me?’
‘Lucas, it wasn’t exactly easy for me to make this decision – ’
‘Sure, I understand. But I had to ask.’
Lucas came to London alone, on the boat train. Edith and Margaret had wanted to come back to London for a few more days, but he insisted that they take their booked passage on the Ile de France from Cherbourg. He expected some heated discussion in London and he did not want any interference from the women. He expected he would get enough from Nina.
He was right. ‘You can’t do this, Daddy! You can’t expect us to go out to Abu Sadar, taking Michael to a place like that – ’
‘You and Michael don’t have to go. All I’m asking Tim to do is go and learn the business at the source. He said he could speak Arabic – that’s not much, but it’s more than he has to offer in the London office.’
You son-of-a-bitch, thought Tim, using an Americanism because it had just the right amount of bite to it. There were four-letter words on the tip of his tongue, but he held those back. He was surrendering to Lucas and he was going to do it as gracefully as possible. To do so, he knew, would take some of the edge off Lucas’ satisfaction.
‘I’ve given it a lot of thought since you called me, Tim. If I put you into the London office, I’d have to move someone sideways to make way for you – ’
‘Why do you have to move someone?’ Nina demanded. ‘The company is big enough – just make another position.’
‘Tim wouldn’t like that, would you, Tim?’
The old son-of-a-bitch is co-opting me on his side while he’s cutting my balls off. ‘We don’t want any nepotism. At least none that will show.’
‘I’m not going to Abu Sadar and I’m not letting you go!’
‘Drop your voice, darling heart, or we’ll be thrown out of here.’
‘We shouldn’t have invited her to lunch,’ said Lucas. ‘Women should be left out of business discussions.’
Lucas had checked into the Savoy again and Tim and Nina, leaving Michael with Eileen Hamill, had come up by train. They were having lunch in the Grill, a setting not designed for family rows.
‘Do you want to go to Abu Sadar?’ Nina said.
‘Not really. Certainly not without you and Michael.’
‘It’s no place for women and children, not yet awhile.’ Lucas looked at the dessert trolley as a waiter approached with it. ‘I’ll try the baked custard. You’ll only need six months out there. You’ll get the feel of the business and then you can come home to Kansas City, to head office. Don’t you want dessert, Nina?’
‘And what do I do?’ Nina dismissed the waiter and the dessert trolley without looking at either. ‘Sit here in London twiddling my thumbs?’
‘I think what your father is suggesting is that you should go back to Kansas City. Or is that a wild guess, Lucas?’ The sarcasm was as smooth as the baked custard which he, too, had ordered.
‘Do you need to go to the ladies’ room?’ Lucas said to Nina.
‘No, I don’t! Dammit, Daddy, what are you trying to do?’
‘Tim will go into marketing when he comes back to head office. That suit you, Tim?’ But he didn’t wait for an answer. ‘Go and powder your nose, Nina. When you come back we’ll have it all worked out.’
‘That’s what I’m afraid of.’ She looked at Tim for support, but he shook his head, a gentle movement that she almost missed. But his message was in his eyes: your old man has won, darling heart. Abruptly she stood up, almost knocking over a waiter, and plunged blindly across the room and out to the ladies’ room.
‘Do you agree she and Michael should come home?’
‘As she asked you, Lucas, what are you trying to do? Are you stuffing me and having me mounted like some sort of trophy?’
‘This is good custard. Think I’ll have some more. Stuffing you? I take it that’s a euphemism for a stronger term. No, I’m not. I’ll remind you, you came to me asking for a job. I didn’t have you flooded out of the boat-yard.’
‘I’m glad to hear you say that.’
‘Cut out your whimsy. That’s your trouble, you don’t take anything seriously enough.’
‘You’re wrong there, Lucas old chap. I know this is bloody serious. You’re trying to break up my marriage.’
‘That’s where you are wrong. I’m not trying to break up your marriage. But I don’t want my daughter and my only grandchild traipsing round the world after you while you try to make a living at trades you have no training for. I can make a good career for you in oil. You’re intelligent and if you can sell oil as well as you sell yourself, you’ll be a success in no time.’
‘You’re a past-master at flattery.’
Lucas ignored the comment. ‘I can’t bring you in cold and dump you on the marketing vice-president back home. That’s why you have to go out to Abu Sadar. While you’re out there Nina and Michael can live in comfort back home in your own house.’
‘I still feel I’m being stuffed. But as the ladies say, if rape is inevitable you may as well lie back and enjoy it. No ladies of my acquaintance, I hasten to add.’
‘You’d never need to rape any woman. You’re too good a salesman.’
‘No more flattery. It’s going to my head. Yes, I think I’ll have some more baked custard. I’ll probably get nothing like this out in Abu Sadar. Unless you’ll send me food parcels?’
Lucas smiled, knowing he had won. ‘I’ll see if Sears Roebuck send food parcels.’
Nina came back, face made up, spirit repaired. Before she even sat down she knew that everything had been decided, that her father, this time with the acquiescence of her husband, had claimed her back into the family. She was angry at Tim for his surrender, but her anger at herself was only slightly less. She would be glad to be returning home.
‘I think I’ll have some dessert, after all. No, not baked custard. I’ll have a couple of éclairs. I always over-eat when I’m unhappy. When do you leave for Abu Sadar?’
‘He goes as soon as possible,’ said Lucas. ‘I’ll stay on until you’re ready to leave, then you and Michael can come home