Kane and Abel/Sons of Fortune Read online

  Spontaneous applause broke out from the public benches, and the noise was such that they did not hear the judge release the prisoner, dismiss the jury, and declare the case closed.

  Nat leaned across and almost had to shout, “Thank you,” before adding, “two inadequate words as I’ll spend the rest of my life in your debt without ever being able to properly repay you. But nevertheless, thank you.”

  Fletcher smiled. “Clients,” he said, “fall into two categories: those you hope never to see again, and just occasionally those who you know will be friends for the rest …”

  Su Ling suddenly appeared by her husband’s side and threw her arms around him.

  “Thank God,” she said.

  “Governor will do,” said Fletcher, as Nat and Su Ling laughed for the first time in weeks. Before Nat could respond, Lucy came bursting through the barrier and greeted her father with the words, “Well done, Dad, I’m very proud of you.”

  “Praise indeed,” said Fletcher. “Nat, this is my daughter Lucy, who fortunately isn’t yet old enough to vote for you, but if she were …” Fletcher looked around, “so where’s the woman who caused all this trouble in the first place?”

  “Mom’s at home,” replied Lucy. “After all, you did tell her it would be at least another week before Mr. Cartwright would be on the stand.”

  “True,” said Fletcher.

  “And please pass on my thanks to your wife,” said Su Ling. “We will always remember that it was Annie who persuaded you to represent my husband. Perhaps we can all get together in the near future, and …”

  “Not until after the election,” said Fletcher firmly, “as I’m still hoping that at least one member of my family will be voting for me.” He paused, and turning to Nat said, “Do you know the real reason I worked so hard on this case?”

  “You couldn’t face the thought of having to spend the next few weeks with Barbara Hunter,” said Nat.

  “Something like that,” he said, with a smile.

  Fletcher was about to go across and shake hands with the state’s team, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Rebecca Elliot still sitting in the witness stand waiting for the court to clear. Her head was bowed, and she looked forlorn and lonely.

  “I know it’s hard to believe,” said Fletcher, “but I actually feel sorry for her.”

  “You should,” said Nat, “because one thing’s for certain, Ralph Elliot would have murdered his wife if he had thought it would win him the election.”

  BOOK SIX

  REVELATION

  49

  FLETCHER SAT IN his Senate office reading the morning papers the day after the trial.

  “What an ungrateful lot,” he said, passing the Hartford Courant across to his daughter.

  “You should have left him to fry,” said Lucy as she glanced at the latest opinion poll figures.

  “Expressed with your usual elegance and charm,” said Fletcher. “It does make me wonder if all the money I’ve spent sending you to Hotchkiss has been worthwhile, not to mention what Vassar is going to cost me.”

  “I may not be going to Vassar, Dad,” said Lucy in a quieter voice.

  “Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?” asked Fletcher, picking up on his daughter’s change of tone.

  “Yes, Dad, because even though Vassar has offered me a place, I may not be able to accept it.”

  Fletcher couldn’t always be certain when Lucy was kidding and when she was serious, but as she had asked to see him in his office and not to mention the meeting to Annie, he had to assume she was in earnest. “What’s the problem?” he asked quietly, looking across the desk at her.

  Lucy didn’t meet his stare. She bowed her head and said, “I’m pregnant.”

  Fletcher didn’t reply immediately as he tried to take in his daughter’s confession. “Is George the father?” he eventually asked.

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “And are you going to marry him?”

  Lucy thought about the question for some time before replying. “No,” she said. “I adore George, but I don’t love him.”

  “But you were willing to let him make love to you.”

  “That’s not fair,” said Lucy. “It was the Saturday night after the election for president, and I’m afraid we both had a little too much to drink. To be honest, I was sick of being described by everyone in my class as the virgin president. And if I had to lose my virginity, I couldn’t think of anyone nicer than George, especially after he admitted that he was also a virgin. In the end I’m not sure who seduced whom.”

  “How does George feel about all this? After all, it’s his child as well as yours and he struck me as rather a serious young man, especially when it came to his feelings for you.”

  “He doesn’t know yet.”

  “You haven’t told him?” said Fletcher in disbelief.

  “No.”

  “How about your mother?”

  “No,” she repeated. “The only person I’ve shared this with is you.” This time she did look her father in the eye, before adding, “Let’s face it, Dad, Mom was probably still a virgin on the day you married her.”

  “And so was I,” said Fletcher, “but you’re going to have to let her know before it becomes obvious to everyone.”

  “Not if I were to have an abortion.”

  Again, Fletcher remained silent for some time, before saying, “Is that what you really want?”

  “Yes, Dad, but please don’t tell Mom, because she wouldn’t understand.”

  “I’m not sure I do myself,” said Fletcher.

  “Are you pro-women’s choice for everyone except your daughter?” asked Lucy.

  “It won’t last,” said Nat, staring at the headline in the Hartford Courant.

  “What won’t?” said Su Ling as she poured him another coffee.

  “My seven-point lead in the polls. In a few weeks’ time the electorate won’t even remember which one of us was on trial.”

  “I guess she’ll still remember,” said Su Ling quietly as she glanced over her husband’s shoulder at a photograph of Rebecca Elliot walking down the courtroom steps, every hair no longer in place. “Why did she ever marry him?” she said almost to herself.

  “It wasn’t me who married Rebecca,” said Nat. “Let’s face it, if Elliot hadn’t copied my thesis and prevented me going to Yale, to start with we would never have met,” said Nat, taking his wife’s hand.

  “I just wish I’d been able to have more children,” said Su Ling, her voice still subdued. “I miss Luke so much.”

  “I know,” said Nat, “but I’ll never regret running up that particular hill, at that particular time, on that particular day.”

  “And I’m glad I took the wrong path,” said Su Ling, “because I couldn’t love you any more. But I’d have willingly given up my life if it would have meant saving Luke’s.”

  “I suspect that would be true of most parents,” said Nat, looking at his wife, “and you could certainly include your mother, who sacrificed everything for you, and doesn’t deserve to have been treated so cruelly.”

  “Don’t worry about my mother,” said Su Ling, snapping out of her maudlin mood. “I went to see her yesterday only to find the shop packed with dirty old men bringing in their even dirtier laundry, secretly hoping that she’s running a massage parlor upstairs.”

  Nat burst out laughing. “And to think we kept it secret for all those years. I would certainly never have believed that the day would come when I would be able to laugh about it.”

  “She says if you become governor, she’s going to open a string of shops right across the state. Her advertising slogan will be ‘we wash your dirty linen in public.’”

  “I always knew that there was some overriding reason I still needed to be governor,” said Nat as he rose from the table.

  “And who has the privilege of your company today?” asked Su Ling.

  “The good folk of New Canaan,” said Nat.

  “So when will you be