A Dangerous Fortune(154)
He was casting about for something to say, some last attempt to change Greenbourne’s mind, when the butler came in and said: “Pardon me, Mr. Greenbourne, but you asked to be called the moment the detective arrived.”
Greenbourne stood up immediately, looking agitated, but his courtesy would not let him rush out without an explanation. “I’m sorry, Pilaster, but I must leave you. My granddaughter Rebecca has … disappeared … and we are all distraught.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Hugh said. He knew Solly’s sister Kate, and he had a vague memory of her daughter, a pretty dark-haired girl. “I hope you find her safe and well.”
“We don’t believe she has suffered violence—in fact we’re quite sure she has only run off with a boy. But that’s bad enough. Please excuse me.”
“By all means.”
The old man went out, leaving Hugh amid the ruins of his hopes.
3
MAISIE SOMETIMES WONDERED if there was something infectious about going into labor. It often happened, in a ward full of women nine months pregnant, that days would go by without incident, but as soon as one started labor the others would follow within hours.
It had been like that today. It had started at four o’clock in the morning and they had been delivering babies ever since. The midwives and nurses did most of the work, but when they were overstretched Maisie and Rachel had to leave their pens and ledgers and scurry around with towels and blankets.
By seven o’clock, however, it was all over, and they were enjoying a cup of tea in Maisie’s office with Rachel’s lover, Maisie’s brother Dan, when Hugh Pilaster came in. “I bring very bad news, I’m afraid,” he said right away.
Maisie was pouring tea but his tone of voice shocked her and she stopped. Looking hard at his face she saw that he was grief-stricken, and she thought someone must have died. “Hugh, what has happened?”
“I think you keep all the hospital’s money in an account at my bank, don’t you?”
If it was only money, Maisie thought, the news could not be that bad.
Rachel answered Hugh’s question. “Yes. My father handles the money, but he has kept his own private account with you ever since he became the bank’s lawyer, and I suppose he found it convenient to do the same with the hospital’s account.”
“And he invested your money in Cordova bonds.”
“Did he?”
Maisie said: “What’s wrong, Hugh? For goodness’ sake tell us!”
“The bank has failed.”
Maisie’s eyes filled with tears, not for herself but for him. “Oh, Hugh!” she cried. She knew how much he was hurting. For him this was almost like the death of a loved one, for he had invested all his hopes and dreams in the bank. She wished she could take some of the pain into herself, to ease his suffering.
Dan said: “Good God. There will be a panic.”
“All your money has gone,” Hugh said. “You’ll probably have to close the hospital. I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”
Rachel was white with shock. “That’s not possible!” she said. “How can our money be gone?”
Dan answered her. “The bank can’t pay its debts,” he said bitterly. “That’s what bankruptcy means, it means you owe people money and you can’t pay them.”
In a flash of recollection Maisie saw her father, a quarter of a century earlier looking much as Dan did today, saying exactly the same thing about bankruptcy. Dan had spent much of his life trying to protect ordinary people from the effects of these financial crises—but so far he had achieved nothing. “Perhaps now they’ll pass your Banking Bill,” she said to him.
Rachel said to Hugh: “But what have you done with our money?”
Hugh sighed. “Essentially this happened because of something Edward did while he was Senior Partner. It was a mistake, a huge mistake, and he lost a lot of money, more than a million pounds. I’ve been trying to hold everything together since then, but today my luck ran out.”
“I just didn’t know this could happen!” said Rachel.
Hugh said: “You should get some of your money back but not for a year or more.”
Dan put his arm around Rachel but she would not be consoled. “And what is going to happen to all the wretched women who come here for help?”
Hugh looked so wounded that Maisie wanted to tell Rachel to shut up. “I would gladly give you the money out of my own pocket,” he said. “But I’ve lost everything too.”
“Surely something can be done?” she persisted.
“I did try. I’ve just come from Ben Greenbourne’s house. I asked him to rescue the bank and pay the creditors, but he refused. He has troubles of his own, poor man: apparently his granddaughter Rebecca has run off with her boyfriend. Anyway, without his support nothing can be done.”
Rachel stood up. “I think I’d better go and see my father.”
“I must go to the House of Commons,” Dan said.
They went out.
Maisie’s heart was full. She was dismayed at the prospect of closing the hospital, and rocked by the sudden destruction of all she had worked for; but most of all she ached for Hugh. She recalled, as if it were yesterday, the night seventeen years ago, after the Goodwood races, when Hugh had told her his life story; and she could hear now the agony in his voice when he told her that his father had gone bankrupt and taken his own life. He had said then that he was going to be the cleverest, most conservative and richest banker in the world one day—as if he believed that would ease the pain of his loss. And perhaps it would have. But instead he had suffered the same fate as his father.