Джеффри Арчер - The Prodigal Daughter

‘So all we have to do is get hold of eight percent of Lester’s stock and use his own specially inserted clause against him as and when it suits us.’ Abel paused. ‘I don’t imagine that will be easy.’

‘That’s why I’ve asked you for a raise.’

Abel found the task of being accepted to serve in the armed forces considerably more difficult than he had at first imagined. The army was none too polite about his sight, his weight, his heart or his general physical condition. Only after some string pulling did he manage to secure a job as a quartermaster with the Fifth Army under General Mark Clark, who was waiting to sail to Africa. Abel jumped at the one chance to be involved in the war and disappeared to officer candidate school. Miss Tredgold did not realize until he had left Rigg Street how much Florentyna was going to miss her father. She tried to convince the child that the war would not last long, but she did not believe her own words. Miss Tredgold had read too much history.

Abel returned from training school as a major, slimmer and younger-looking, but Florentyna hated seeing her father in uniform, because everyone else she knew in uniform was going away to somewhere beyond Chicago and they never seemed to come back. In April 1942, Abel waved goodbye and left New York on the S.S. Bonnguen . Florentyna, who was still only seven, was convinced goodbye meant forever. Mother assured her daughter that Papa would return home very quickly.

Like Miss Tredgold, Zaphia did not believe that — and this time neither did Florentyna.

When Florentyna progressed to the fourth grade she was appointed secretary of her class, which meant she kept the weekly minutes of class meetings. When she read her report aloud to the rest of the class each week, no one in the fourth grade showed much interest, but in the heat and dust of Algiers, Abel, torn between laughter and tears, read each line of his daughter’s earnest work as if it were the latest bestseller. Florentyna’s most recent fad, much approved of by Miss Tredgold, was the Brownie scouts, which allowed her to wear a uniform like her father. Not only did she enjoy dressing up in the smart brown outfit, but she soon discovered she could cover the sleeves with different-colored badges for such enterprises as varied as helping in the kitchen to collecting used stamps. Florentyna was awarded so many badges, so quickly, that Miss Tredgold was kept hard at it sewing them on and trying to find a new space for each one. Knots, cooking, gymnastics, animal care, handicrafts, stamps, hiking, followed quickly one after the other. ‘It would have been easier if you had been an octopus,’ said Miss Tredgold. But final victory was to be hers when her charge won a badge for needlework and had to sew the little yellow triangle on for herself.

When Florentyna progressed to the fifth grade, where the two schools joined together for most classes, Edward Winchester was appointed president of his class, mainly because of his feats on the soccer field, while Florentyna held the post of secretary despite having better grades than anyone else including Edward. Her only disasters were in geometry, where she came in second, and in the art room. Miss Tredgold always enjoyed re-reading Florentyna’s reports and positively relished the remarks of the art teacher. ‘Perhaps if Florentyna splashed more paint on the paper than on everything that surrounded it, she might hope to become an artist rather than a house painter.’

But the line Miss Tredgold would never forget was written by Florentyna’s homeroom teacher: ‘This pupil mustn’t cry when she is second.’

As the months passed, Florentyna became aware that many of the children in her class had fathers involved in the war. She soon discovered that hers was not the only home that had to face separation. Miss Tredgold enrolled Florentyna in ballet and piano lessons to keep every moment of her spare time occupied. She even allowed her to take Eleanor to the K-9 Corps as a useful pet, but the Labrador was sent home because she limped. Florentyna wished they would do the same to her father. When the summer holidays came, Miss Tredgold, with the approval of Zaphia, extended their horizons to New York and Washington, despite the travel restrictions imposed by the war. Zaphia took advantage of her daughter’s absence to attend fund-raising meetings in aid of Polish soldiers returning from the front.

Florentyna was thrilled by her first trip to New York even though she had to leave Eleanor behind. There were skyscrapers, big department stores, Central Park and more people than she had ever seen before; but despite all the excitement; it was Washington she most wanted to visit. The journey was Florentyna’s first in an airplane, and Miss Tredgold’s as well, and as the plane followed the line of the Potomac River into Washington’s National Airport, Florentyna stared down in awe at the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the as yet unfinished Jefferson building. She wondered if it would be a memorial or a monument and asked Miss Tredgold to explain the difference. Miss Tredgold hesitated and said they would have to look up the two words in Webster’s dictionary when they returned to Chicago, as she wasn’t certain there was a difference. It was the first time that Florentyna realized that Miss Tredgold didn’t know everything.

‘It’s just like in the pictures,’ she said as she stared down out of the tiny airplane window at the Capitol.

‘What did you expect?’ said Miss Tredgold.

Henry Osborne had organized a special visit to the White House and a chance to watch the Senate and House in session. Once she entered the gallery of the Senate Chamber, Florentyna was mesmerized as each senator rose at his desk to speak. Miss Tredgold had to drag her away as one might a boy from a football game, but it didn’t stop her continually asking Henry Osborne more and more questions. He was surprised by the knowledge the nine-year-old girl already possessed even if she was the daughter of the Chicago Baron.

Florentyna and Miss Tredgold spent the night at the Willard Hotel. Her father had not yet built a Baron in Washington, although Congressman Osborne assured them that one was in the pipeline; in fact, he added, the site had already been fixed.

‘What does “fixed” mean, Mr. Osborne?’

Florentyna received no satisfactory reply either from Henry Osborne or from Miss Tredgold, and decided to look that up in Webster’s dictionary as well.

That night Miss Tredgold tucked the child into a large hotel bed and left the room assuming that after such a long day her charge would quickly fall asleep. Florentyna waited for a few minutes before switching the light back on. She then retrieved her guide to the White House from under the pillow. FDR in a black cloak stared up at her. ‘There can be no greater calling than public service’ was printed boldly on the line underneath his name. She read the booklet twice through, but it was the final page that fascinated her most. She started to memorize it and fell asleep a few minutes after one, the light still on.

During the return flight home Florentyna again carefully studied the last page while Miss Tredgold read of the progress of the war in the Washington Times-Herald . Italy had virtually surrendered, although it was clear that the Germans still believed they could win. Florentyna didn’t interrupt Miss Tredgold’s reading once between Washington and Chicago, and the governess wondered, because the child was so quiet, if she was exhausted from the travel. On returning home she allowed Florentyna to go to bed early but not before she had written a thank-you letter to Congressman Osborne. When Miss Tredgold came to put the light out, Florentyna was still studying the guide to the White House.