Джеффри Арчер - The Prodigal Daughter

Some members on the floor of the House started to applaud.

‘To each American who says our defense expenditure is too costly, I reply let them look to the countries behind the Iron Curtain and see that no price is too high to pay for the democratic freedom we take for granted in this country. The Iron Curtain is drawn across East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, with Afghanistan and Yugoslavia guarding their borders in daily expectation of that curtain being drawn still further, perhaps even reaching the Middle East. After that the Soviets will not be satisfied until it encircles the entire globe.’ The House was so silent that Florentyna dropped her voice before she continued. ‘Many nations have through history played their role in the protection of the free world. That responsibility has now been passed to the leaders of this commonwealth. Let our grandchildren never say we shirked that responsibility in exchange for popularity. Let us assure America’s freedom by being willing to make a sacrifice now. Let us be able to say to every American that we did not shirk our duty in the face of danger. Let there be in this House no Nero, no fiddler, no fire and no victory for our enemies.’

Members in the chamber cheered while Florentyna remained standing. The Speaker helplessly tried to gavel the meeting to order. When the last cheer had died she spoke almost in a whisper.

‘Let that sacrifice never again be the lives of America’s youth, or substituted for by the dangerous illusion that we can keep peace in the world without providing for its defense against aggression. Adequately protected, America can influence events without fear, govern without terror and still remain the bastion of the free world. Mr. Speaker, I oppose the Simon Amendment as irrelevant, and worse, irresponsible.’

Florentyna took her seat and she was quickly surrounded by colleagues from both sides who praised her speech. The press heaped further praise on her the next day and the networks included passages from her speech in their bulletins. Florentyna was shocked at how glibly they described her as an expert on defense. Two papers even talked of her as a future Vice President.

Once again Florentyna’s mail rose to over a thousand letters a week, but there were three letters that particularly moved her. The first was a dinner invitation from an ailing Hubert Humphrey. She accepted but, like the other invited guests, did not attend. The second came from Robert Buchanan, simply written in a bold hand:

‘I salute you, madam.’

The third was an anonymous scrawled note from Ohio:

You are a fucking communist agent bent on destroying America with impossible defense commitments. The gas chamber is too good a place for people like you. You should be strung up with that dummy Ford and that pimp Carter. Why don’t you get back to the kitchen where you belong, bitch?

‘How do you react to people like that?’ asked Janet, stunned.

‘You don’t bother. Repudiating that sort of mindless prejudice is beyond even your skillful hand. Let’s be thankful that ninety-nine percent of the letters are from fair-minded people who wish to express their views honestly. Though I confess if I knew his address I’d be tempted to reply for the first time in my life, “Up Yours.” ’

After a hectic week during which she seemed to be pursued by phone messages, Florentyna spent a quiet weekend with Richard. William was home from Harvard and was quick to show his mother a cartoon from the Boston Globe depicting her as a heroine with the head of an eagle, punching a bear on the nose. Annabel phoned from school to tell her mother that she wouldn’t be home that weekend.

Florentyna played tennis with her son that Saturday and it took her only a few minutes to realize how fit he was and what a dreadful state she was in. She couldn’t pretend walking around golf courses kept her fit. With each shot it became more obvious that William wasn’t trying very hard. She was relieved to be told that he couldn’t play another set because he had a date. She scribbled a note to Janet to order an Exercycle from Hammacher Schlemmer.

Over dinner that night, Richard told Florentyna that he wanted to build a Baron in Madrid and he was thinking of sending Edward to check the building sites.

‘Why Edward?’

‘He’s asked to go. He’s working almost full-time for the Group now and has even rented an apartment in New York.’

‘What can have happened to his law practice?’

‘He’s become counsel to the firm and says that if you can change your whole career at forty, why shouldn’t he. Since Daley’s death he hasn’t found it a full-time job proving that you’re worth a place in Congress. I must say he’s like a schoolboy who’s found himself locked up in a candy store. It’s taken a great load off my shoulders. He’s the only man I know who works as hard as you.’

‘What a good friend he has turned out to be.’

‘Yes, I agree. You do realize he’s in love with you, don’t you?’

‘What?’ said Florentyna.

‘Oh, I don’t mean he wants to leap into bed with you, not that I could blame him if he did. No, he simply adores you, but he would never admit it to anyone, although it wouldn’t take a blind man to see that.’

‘But I never—’

‘No, of course you haven’t, my darling. Do you think I would be considering putting him on the board of Lester’s if I thought I might lose my wife to him?’

‘I wish he would find himself a wife.’

‘He’ll never marry anyone as long as you are around, Jessie. Just be thankful that you have two men who adore you.’

When Florentyna returned to Washington after the weekend she was greeted with another pile of the invitations that had been coming in with increasing frequency. She sought Edward’s advice as to what she should do about them.

‘Select about half a dozen of the major invitations to places where your views can be expected to reach the maximum number of people, and explain to the others that your work load does not permit you to accept at the moment. But remember to end each letter of refusal with a personal handwritten line. One day when you are seeking a bigger audience than the Ninth District of Illinois, there will be people whose only contact with you will be that letter, and on that alone they will decide whether they are for or against you.’

‘You’re a wise old thing, Edward.’

‘Ah, but you mustn’t forget I’m a year older than you, my dear.’

Florentyna took Edward’s advice and spent two hours every night dealing with the letters prompted by her speech on defense. At the end of five weeks she had answered every one, by which time her mail had almost returned to normal proportions. She accepted invitations to speak at Princeton and the University of California at Berkeley. She also addressed the cadets of West Point and the midshipmen at Annapolis and was to be the guest of Max Cleland at a Washington lunch to honor Vietnam veterans. Everywhere she went Florentyna was introduced as one of America’s leading authorities on defense. She became so involved and fascinated by the subject that it terrified her how little she really knew which made her study the subject even more intensively. Somehow she kept up with her work in Chicago, but the more she became a public figure, the more she had to assign tasks to her staff. She appointed two more assistants to her Washington office and another in Chicago at her own expense. She was now spending over $100,000 a year out of her own pocket. Richard described it as reinvesting in America.

‘Anything that can’t wait?’ asked Florentyna, glancing down at a desk full of correspondence that had arrived that morning. The 95th Congress was winding down and most members were once again more concerned about being reelected than about sitting in Washington working on legislation. At this stage of the session, staffers were spending almost all their time dealing with constituency problems rather than concentrating on national affairs. Florentyna disliked a system that made hypocrites of normally honest people as soon as another election loomed.