The Prodigal Daughter (24 page)

“Yes, Father, I
have, and it will make no difference to my decision. I have met the woman with
whom I intend to spend the rest of my life and I am proud that she would even
consider being my wife.”

“She has tricked
and ensnared you so that she and her father can finally take the bank away from
me. Can’t you see through their plan?”

“Even you can’t believe
something as preposterous as that, Father. “

“Preposterous?
He once accused me of being responsible for killing his partner, Davis Leroy,
when I-”

“Father,
Florentyna knew nothing of the circumstances surrounding your quarrel until she
met me. How can you be so irrational?”

“She has.
told
you she’s pregnant so you will have to marry her. “

“Father, that
was unworthy of you. Florentyna has never put the slightest pressure on me from
the moment we met.
On the contrary.”
Richard tumed to his mother.
“Won’t you both meet her and
then you’ll understand how it came about?”

148Tin- PRODIGAL
DAUGHnR

Kate was going
to reply when Richard’s father shouted, hNo. Never,” and turning to his wife,
he asked her to leave em alone. As she left, Richard could see that she was
weeping.

“Now listen to
me, Richard. If you marry the Rosnovski girl I will ciii you off without a
penny.”

“You sufler like
generations of our family, Father, from imagining money can buy everything.
Your son is not for sale.”

“But you could
marry Mary Bigelow-such a respectable girl, and from our own background.”

Richard laughed.
“Someone as wonderful as Florentyna couldn’t be replaced by a suitable Brahmin
family friend.”

“Don’t you
mention our backgrounds in the same breath as that stupid
Polack.
”

“Father, I never
thought I would have to listen to such pathetic prejudice from a normally sober
person.”

William Kane
took a pace toward his son. Richard never flinched. His father stopped in his
tracks. “Get out,” he said. “You’re no longer a member of my family. Never...”

Ric-hard left
the room. As he walked across the hall he became aware that his mother was
leaning hunched against the banister. He went to her and took her in his arms.
She whispered. “I’ll always love you,” and released him when she heard her
husband come into the hall.

Richard closed
the front door gently behind him. He was back on
Sixty-eighth
Street. His only thought was how Florentyna had managed to face her own
encounter. He hailed a cab and without looking back directed it to Florentyna’s
apartment.

He had never
felt so free in his life.

When he reached
Fifty-seventh
Street he asked the doorman if Florentyna had
returned. She hadn’t, so he waited under the canopy, beginning to fear she
might not have been able to get away. He was deep in thought and didn’t notice
when another cab came to a halt at the curb and the frail figure of Florentyna
stepped out. She was holding a tissue to a bleeding lip. She rushed toward him
and they quickly went upstairs to the privacy of the apartment.

“I love You,
Richard” were her first words.

“I love you,
too,” said Richard, and took her in his arms, holding her tightly as if it
would solve their problems.

Florentyna
didn’t let go of Richard as he spoke.

“He threatened
to cut me off without a penny if I manied you,” he told her.

“When will they
understand we don’t care 149 a damn about their money? I tried appealing to my
mother for support, but even she couldn’t control my father’s temper. He
insisted that she leave the room. I’ve never seen him treat my mother that way
before. She was weeping, which only made my resolve stronger. I left him in
midsentence.

God knows, I
hope he doesn’t take it out on Virginia and Lucy. What happened when you told
your father?”

“He hit me,”
said Florentyna very quietly.
“For the first time in my life.
I think he’ll kill you if he finds us together. Richard darling, we must get
out of here before he discovers where we are, and he’s bound to try the
apartment first. I’m so frightened.”

“No need for you
to be frightened. We’ll leave tonight and go as far away as possible and to
hell with them both.”

“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 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. “Idiewild,” 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, butjust 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. Abet Rosnovski on the line, sir.
Are you in?”

William Kane
felt -4 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 th~ time, no doubt, when you failed so conspicuously
to cause the downfall of my bank.”

“Don’t bc- 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.

‘Me 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.

W
HEN FLIGHT 1049
landed at San Francisco’s International Airport, Florentyna hoped it hadn’t
been too short notice. Richard had haidly placed a foot on the tarmac when he
saw a massive woman charge toward them and throw her arrns 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 ch~st.

“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 arc 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 he
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 fight. 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.

“It may be
easier for you. I can’t believe that many banks will offer me a job without a
degree or at least a reference from my father.”

“Don’t worry,”
said Florentyna, ruffling his hair. “We can beat both our fathers.”

Richard turned
out to be right. It took Florentyna only three days and hei prospective
employers one phone call to the personnel director at Bloomingdale’s before she
was offered a position at a young fashion shop called Wayout Columbus, which
had advertised for a “bright sales assista ‘ nt” in the Chronicle. It was only
another week before the manager realized what a bargain they had picked up.