Lady of Fortune (66 page)

‘I think a bottle of champagne would go down better,' said Effie.

‘You're sure? A bottle of champagne?'

‘The Krug. In the Buccelatti tankards.'

‘Two, Miss Effie?'

‘Yes,' she said. Then she peeled off her gloves, handed them to Kitty, and walked with stiff movements into the living-room.

Unlike Dougal, Robert had scarcely changed. He was only three years away from sixty now, and his short-cropped hair was completely grey, like the fur of iron-fillings clinging to a magnet. But his cheeks were as smooth as ever; his eyes as bright and colourless; his double-chins as firm and glossy and pink as ever. His black banker's suit was voluminous, but superbly tailored. He smelled of wealth, and Floris Special No. 127 cologne, the very same fragrance that Henry Baeklander had worn, all those years ago in London, almost as if he had deliberately set out to provoke her, and throw her off-balance.

‘Hullo, Effie,' he said, spreading his arms wide.

With quick and graceful footsteps, almost as if they were rehearsed, she skirted his intended embrace, and stalked towards the window. He kept his arms up for a moment or two, and then dropped them down at his sides.

‘You're early,' she said. Her movements were as agitated as a ballet-dancer's. ‘We didn't expect you until the beginning of next month.'

‘I finished what I was doing in Edinburgh, and decided to take the soonest ship I could. As it turned out, it was the
Île
de France
. Perhaps I should have waited until August. The Germans are going to launch the Europa then; followed by the Bremen. Real giants of ships, 50,000 tons, like two new planets. Watson's helped to finance them.'

‘You're
still
helping the Germans, even now?'

‘It's wise to help the Germans, my dearie. They're a clever race of people; not too different from the British, when everything's said and done. And when they've managed to overcome the problem of all these war reparations, and sorted out their heavy industry – well, you mark my words, Effie, they'll be back on top.'

‘Raring for revenge?'

‘Raring for nothing else except what's rightfully theirs.'

Effie was silent for a long time. Robert looked at her once or twice, and then shrugged, and sat down. The prickly top of his head was all that was reflected in the gilded mirror over the fireplace, like a dark sun rising over a reversed world, or a mine floating in the ocean, rolling and turning, waiting for a passenger-liner crowded with women and children. Effie, at last, said, ‘I'm not pleased to see you. I hope you realise that.'

‘The displeasure is mutual, believe me. But we're brother and sister, aren't we? Close kin. How could I come to New York and not drop in to say hullo to my sister Effie.'

‘I've ordered some champagne.'

‘Well, that's excellent. You wouldn't have a cold beef sandwich would you, to go with it?'

‘I'll inquire,' said Effie, starchily.

‘With pickle, if it's not too much trouble.'

Kitty came in with a silver engraved tray, on which there was an open bottle of Krug champagne, and two silver tankards with carved ivory cockatoos for handles, with rubies in their eyes. She set it down on the table besides Effie, but Effie said, ‘Mr Robert will pour, thank you, Kitty. And Kitty? Would you cut Mr Robert a sandwich with that beef we had left over from the Douglass dinner.'

‘Yes, ma'am,' said Kitty.

Robert poured them each a tankard of champagne, and then stood with his back to the pink marble fireplace, one hand tucked under the tails of his black swallow coat, the other holding his tankard in an odd two-fingered grip. ‘You've done well for yourself,' he said. ‘But I hear you're selling up, and moving to California.'

‘That's right.'

Robert made a face. ‘I gather it's pretty wild out there, in California. Not at all the sort of thing we're used to in Troon.'

‘You're living in Troon now?'

‘I have a house there.'

‘How's Marion keeping?'

‘Well enough, apart from a tendency to asthma. But, well enough.'

There was another long silence, and then Effie said, ‘Have you been to mother's graveside?'

Robert said, ‘Yes, I have.'

‘What did you lay on it? A wreath? Flowers? A message? I hope you signed the message from both of us.'

Robert said, ‘I laid on it exactly what mother always wanted.' He paused, knowing that he had caught Effie's complete attention. He smiled, fatly. ‘Money,' he said. ‘Shredded-up notes from the Bank of Scotland, like a blue snowstorm. You should have seen the cemetery-keeper's face. He even got down on his hands and knees and tried to piece some of the notes back together again. There were ten thousand of them: all of mother's investment in Easton McKirk.'

‘You're lying to me,' said Effie, staring at Robert with a feeling in her stomach that was half amusement and half outright horror. ‘Come on, you're wracking me.'

‘You think so?' asked Robert, drinking champagne.

Effie took a quick breath. ‘I don't know. I don't think I care. If you tore up ten thousand pounds then it was a very foolish way of showing your feelings. Not to mention disrespectful to the mother who bore you.'

Robert laughed. ‘You haven't changed, have you, Effie? By God, you haven't changed. Pious to the last breath. Rich, canny, and moral.'

‘That was your mother's grave you were talking about. The grave to which she might not have gone so early if it hadn't have been for you.'

‘Don't you misjudge me, Effie,' warned Robert. ‘If it hadn't been for me, she might very well have gone to the women's gaol, or the madhouse, and died there. And remember something else: she might well have been my mother, but she choked my father to death. Graves have been dishonoured with far less cause than that.'

Effie said, in a flat voice, ‘I once promised that I would dishonour yours.'

‘Did you now? Yes, I remember you did! But you won't have the opportunity; because I shall undoubtedly outlive you.'

With considerable self-discipline, Effie managed to sit down, on the small French brocade sofa by the bookcase. She tossed her head a little to flick back her hair. She felt like storming out of the room and slamming the door. She felt like screeching at Robert that he should get out of her house. But she knew from experience that to lose her temper with Robert would be to give away any possible advantage that she might have over him. Robert played on weakness: he invariably started a business negotiation by shocking and irritating the people he was dealing with. After that, in his own words, they were ‘rabbits on the run'.

Today, Effie had the twin advantages that she knew America and American banking far more intimately than Robert, and that all of her friends were here. It was an advantage she would have to use quickly and judiciously.

She said, ‘You had a difficult time after the war. So I heard, anyway.'

‘Aye,' said Robert. ‘For a year or two, it was all a pretty close-cut thing. We lost scores of millions of pounds; and there was one time, although it didn't appear so in the shareholders' reports which you received, when we were down to a reserve of less than two million pounds.

‘Mind you, the Bank of England went down to ten million during the war, so I don't suppose we did so badly, comparatively speaking. I just wish now that they'd take Britain off the gold standard. It's doing us irreparable harm.'

Effie didn't comment. She had her own views about the 1925 Gold Standard Act. She said, brusquely, ‘Dougal tells me you want to set up some kind of co-operative arrangement with Watson's New York.'

Robert nodded. ‘That's absolutely right. I've had my eye for quite a while on New York. We do considerable business here in any event: but I would like to think that we had a headquarters here, for dealing with foreign bills and investing in the New York stock market. Several of my Scottish clients want to put their money into American automobiles and steel and chemicals. Many of them already have; but it would be far more convenient if Dougal could handle it all for
me. At least I'd know that the business was in good hands; family hands. I'm only sorry that
you've
decided to pull out.'

‘I'm still a major stockholder in Watson's New York, just as I am in Watson's of Edinburgh,' said Effie.

‘In that case,' smiled Robert, ‘I'm sure I can count on your vote when it comes to putting forward my new arrangements.'

‘What new arrangements?'

Robert put down his tankard, tugged out his hankerchief, and conscientiously dabbed at his mouth. The only sign of his age was that he was beginning to spit a little. Last year, most of his front teeth had been taken out by Sir Gordon Louth, the Scottish dental surgeon, and replaced with dentures. He said, ‘Watson's did extremely well last year by discounting bills to French companies on the expectation of money received from Germany in war reparations. I don't suppose there's very much more to be made out of that particular market: the German economy is now quite desperate, as you know. But we finished up with a few tidy millions which can be lent to American brokers to cover stock purchases on the US market; and we're anxious to do so.'

‘I suppose I'm not against it in principle,' said Effie, coldly.

‘It's excellent business,' said Robert. ‘It will shove more money into the American economy, which can't harm anyone, especially not you, and especially not Dougal. It will allow ordinary American investors to speculate in the shares they want to buy; it will allow American brokers to do the business they so urgently want to do; and it will give the shareholders and investors of Watson's Bank a very healthy slice of profit from the US stock-market boom without actually having to involve themselves in buying US stocks.'

Effie said, ‘I thought you distrusted Dougal.'

‘Of course I don't distrust Dougal! How can you say that? We used to argue when we were young laddies; but look at us now. Grown men.'

‘Have you seen him since you arrived?'

‘I intend to call on him now. I telephoned him earlier but he wasn't at his office: so I decided to come here first.'

‘Well,' said Effie, ‘I don't know what to say. You and I have had such terrible rows in the past. The only reason I left England was because I couldn't stand to work with you any longer; nor
live
with you, for that matter. I still haven't
forgiven you for lending all of that money to Germany.'

‘That was a matter which is probably best forgotten,' said Robert.

‘Would you have said that if Germany had won?'

‘Germany very nearly did win, my dearie. But, yes, we did lose quite a lot of money during the war. I was personally hoping that President Wilson would listen to the Kaiser's peace proposals after the Americans took the St Mihiel Saliet. But, well, it wasn't to be, was it? Instead of an economically-balanced Europe, which we might have had if everything had been settled a good deal earlier, we have this absurd situation whereby Germany is required to pay impossible reparations. It just shows you that politicians understand
nothing
about banking. If Germany were actually to repay even a fraction of those reparations, the whole world's economy would teeter, and tremble. When will they ever understand that countries may have borders, but money hasn't?'

‘You seem to be quite happy to take money from reparations.'

‘Do you blame me, when you consider how much of the money belonged to Watson's in the first place? Besides, a banker who doesn't take advantage of whatever opportunities are available to him is a fool. Which is why I'm here, in New York.'

Knitty came in then, with Robert's beef sandwich. Robert took it without a word; and began to eat, quickly and hungrily, occasionally taking out his hankerchief to wipe his hands. ‘I'm starved. I can never eat on those ships. It's the rolling motion, don't you know, and the smell of oil. I'm lucky if I can keep a bowl of porage down.'

‘How is your arrangement with Watson's New York going to work?' Effie asked.

‘It's very simple,' said Robert. ‘It's all a question of guarantee. Dougal will simply underwrite advances to Wall Street brokers to the tune of twenty-four million pounds, which is the money Watson's in Britain has available for American investment; and Watson's will act as acceptors for the loans. Dougal will be my agent, my New York representative, that's all. And, of course, he will be extremely well rewarded for his trouble.'

‘I shall strongly advise him not to make any advances until
he has received your written note,' said Effie.

‘Och, you're so suspicious,' said Robert, with his mouth full. ‘Do you really think I'd gyp my own brother?'

‘I don't know. I don't think I'd put anything past you.'

Robert wiped his hands again, cleared his throat, and drank some more champagne. ‘I'll tell you what,' he said. ‘So that you're quite sure that I'm not going to play any hanky-panky, I'll allow you to witness my foreign bill to Dougal, and I can assure you that it will guarantee him the entire $24 million within three months. Do you think
that
would be satisfactory?'

Effie shrugged, and turned away, and then said reluctantly, ‘I suppose so. If Dougal's really determined to do business with you, then there isn't much I can do about it, is there?'

‘Not really. But I have to say that I'm sorry you feel this way. I thought, maybe, that after ten years …'

Effie said sharply, ‘Don't try to be sentimental with me, Robert. You've never been the sentimental kind.'

‘All Scots are sentimental!‘Robert protested. ‘In fact, I can show you just how much. I brought someone along to see you.'

‘What do you mean?'