The Prodigal Daughter Read online

  “Would the congressman yield for a question?”

  “Of course.”

  “I am grateful to the distinguished gentleman and would like to ask him where he imagines the extra money for his grandiose military schemes would come from?”

  Buchanan rose slowly to his feet. He wore a three-piece tweed suit, and his silver hair was parted neatly to the right. He rocked from leg to leg like a cavalry officer on a cold parade ground. “My grandiose schemes are no more and no less than those requested by the committee on which I serve and, if I remember correctly, that committee still has a majority from the party which the distinguished member from Illinois represents.” Loud laughter greeted Buchanan’s remarks. Florentyna stood up a second time; Buchanan immediately gave way again.

  “I am still bound to inquire of the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee where he intends to take the money from. Education, hospitals, welfare, perhaps?” The chamber was silent.

  “I would not take it from anyone, ma’am, but I would warn Mrs. Kane that if there is not enough money for defense we may not need any money for education, hospitals or welfare.”

  Congressman Buchanan picked up a document from his table and informed the House of the exact figures spent in the previous year’s budget, in all the departments Florentyna had mentioned. They showed that in real terms, defense spending had dropped more than all the others. “It’s members like the distinguished lady who come to the chamber without facts, equipped with nothing more than a vague feeling that defense expenditure is too high, that make the Kremlin leaders rub their hands with glee while the reputation of the House is at the same time diminished. It is the type of ill-informed attitude being expressed by the lady from Illinois that tied the hands of President Roosevelt and left us so little time to come to terms with the menace of Hitler.”

  Florentyna wished she had never entered the chamber that afternoon as members from both sides echoed their agreement. As soon as Buchanan had finished his remarks, she left the floor and returned quickly to her office.

  “Janet, I want all the committee reports from the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense for the last ten years and ask my legislative researchers to join us immediately,” she said even before she reached her desk.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Janet, somewhat surprised, as Florentyna had never mentioned defense in the three years she had known her. The staffers filed in and sank into Florentyna’s old sofa.

  “For the next few months I plan to concentrate on defense matters. I need you to go over the reports of the subcommittee during the last ten years and mark up any relevant passages. I am trying to get a realistic appraisal of America’s military strength if we were called upon to defend ourselves against an attack from the Soviets.” The four staffers were writing furiously. “I want all the major works on the subject including the CIA Team A and Team B evaluations and I want to be briefed when lectures or seminars on defense or related matters take place in Washington. I want all press comments from the Washington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek and Time put in a file for me every Friday night. No one must be able to quote something I haven’t had a chance to consider.”

  The staffers were as surprised as Janet because they had been concentrating their efforts on small business and tax reform for over two years. They were not going to have many free weekends during the coming months. Once they had departed, Florentyna picked up the phone and dialed five digits. When a secretary answered, she requested an appointment with the Majority Leader.

  “Of course, Mrs. Kane. I will ask Mr. Chadwick to call you later today.”

  Florentyna was ushered into the Majority Leader’s office at ten o’clock the next morning.

  “Mark, I want to be put on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.”

  “I wish it were that easy, Florentyna.”

  “I know. Mark, this is the first favor I’ve asked for.”

  “There is only one slot open on that subcommittee and so many members are twisting my arm it’s amazing I’m not permanently in splints. Nevertheless, I’ll give your request my serious consideration.” He made a note on the pad in front of him. “By the way, Florentyna, the League of Women Voters is holding its annual meeting in my district and they’ve invited me to make the keynote speech on opening day. I know how popular you are with the League and I was hoping you might find it possible to fly up and do the introduction speech.”

  “I’ll give your request my serious consideration,” said Florentyna, smiling.

  She received a note from the Speaker’s office two days later informing her of her appointment as the junior member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Three weeks later she flew to Massachusetts and told the League of Women Voters that as long as there were men like Mark Chadwick in Congress, they need have no fears for America’s well-being. The women applauded loudly while Florentyna turned to find Mark with a pained expression on his face and one arm behind his back.

  During the summer vacation, the whole family went to California. They spent the first ten days in San Francisco with Bella and her family in their new home, high up on the hill, now overlooking the bay.

  Claude had become a partner in the law firm, and Bella had been appointed assistant headmistress. If anything, Richard decided, Claude was a little thinner and Bella a little larger than when they had last seen them.

  The holiday would have been enjoyed by everyone if Annabel hadn’t frequently disappeared off on her own. Bella’s gripping of a hockey stick firmly in her hand left Florentyna in no doubt how she would have dealt with the girl.

  Florentyna tried to keep harmony between the two families, but a confrontation was unavoidable when Bella found Annabel in the attic smoking pot.

  “Mind your own business,” she told Bella as she inhaled once more.

  When Florentyna lost her temper with Annabel, Annabel informed her mother that if she took more interest in her welfare and less in her precious career, perhaps she could have expected a little criticism from her.

  When Richard heard the story he immediately accompanied Annabel back to the East Coast while Florentyna and William traveled on to Los Angeles for the rest of their holiday.

  Florentyna spent an unhappy time phoning Richard twice a day to find out how Annabel was. She and William returned home a week early.

  In September, William entered his freshman year at Harvard, taking up residence in the Yard, on the top floor of Grays Hall, making the fifth generation of Kanes that had been educated at Cambridge. Annabel returned to the Madeira School, where she seemed to be making little progress despite the fact that she spent most weekends under her parents’ watchful eyes in Washington.

  During the next session, Florentyna allocated a considerable part of her time to reading the defense papers and books her staffers recommended. She became engrossed in the problems the nation faced if it wished to remain strategically safe. She read papers by experts, spoke to assistant secretaries at the Defense Department and studied the major U.S. treaties with her NATO allies. She visited the Air Force SAC headquarters, toured U.S. bases in Europe and the Far East, observed army maneuvers in North Carolina and California, even spent a weekend submerged in a nuclear submarine. She sought meetings with admirals and generals, as well as having discussions with enlisted men and noncommissioned officers, but she never once raised her voice in the House chamber and only asked questions in committee hearings, where she was often struck by the fact that the most expensive weapons were not always the most effective. She began to realize that the military had a long way to go in improving its readiness if a national security crisis was to be handled effectively. This had not been tested fully since the Cuba confrontation. After a year of listening and study she came to the conclusion that Representative Buchanan had been right and it was she who had been the fool. She was surprised to find how much she enjoyed her new discipline and realized how her views must have changed when a colleague openly referred to her as a hawk. America had no choi