Jeffrey Archer - Sons of Fortune

Around midnight he would crawl into bed and put his arms round his sleeping wife and occasionally she would sigh. He’d read somewhere that once, when Reagan was out on the stump, he had been found cuddling a lamppost. Fletcher had laughed at the time, but no longer.

‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’

Nat had to agree with his son’s assessment. Juliet was beautiful, but not the sort of girl Luke was likely to fall for. With five other females in the cast, he tried to work out which one it could possibly be. When the curtain came down for the interval, he thought that Luke had given a moving performance, and felt a glow of pride as he sat there in the audience listening to the applause. His parents had seen the play the night before, and told him that they’d felt the same pride as when he had performed Sebastian in the same hall.

Whenever Luke left the stage, Nat found his mind wandering back to the phone call he’d taken from Washington that morning. His secretary assumed it was Tom playing one of his practical jokes when he was asked if he was available to speak to the president of the United States.

Nat had found himself standing when George Bush came on the fine.

The president congratulated him on Fairchild and Russell’s being voted Bank of the Year — his excuse for the call — and then added the simple message, ‘Many people in our party hope you will allow your name to go forward as governor. You have a lot of friends and supporters in Connecticut, Nat. Let’s hope we can meet soon.’

The whole of Hartford knew within the hour that the president had called, but then switchboard operators also have a network of their own. Nat only told Su Ling and Tom, and they didn’t seem all that surprised.

‘The exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine.’

The father’s mind switched back to the play.

Nat found that people began to stop him in the street and say, ‘I hope you’ll run for governor, Nat’ — Mr Cartwright — even sir. When he and Su Ling had entered the hall that evening, heads had turned and he sensed a buzz all around him. In the car on the way to Taft he didn’t ask Su Ling if he should run, simply, ‘Do you think I can do the job?’

‘The president seemed to think so,’ she replied.

When the curtain came down following the death scene, Su Ling remarked, ‘Have you noticed that people are staring at us?’ She paused. ‘I suppose we’ll just have to get used to our son being a star.’

How quickly she could bring Nat back down to earth, and what a governor’s wife she would make.

The cast and the parents were invited to join the principal for supper, so Nat and Su Ling made their way over to his house.

‘It’s the nurse.’

‘Yes, she gave a very sensitive performance,’ said Nat.

‘No, you fool, the nurse must have been the one Luke’s fallen for,’ said Su Ling.

‘What makes you so sure of that?’ asked Nat.

‘Just as the curtain came down, they held hands, and I’m fairly sure that wasn’t in Shakespeare’s original stage directions,’ said Su Ling.

‘Well, we’re about to find out if you’re right,’ said Nat as they entered the principal’s house.

They found Luke sipping a Coke in the hallway. ‘Hi, Dad,’ he said turning to face them. ‘This is Kathy Marshall; she played the nurse.’ Su Ling tried not to smirk. ‘And this is my mother. Wasn’t Kathy fantastic? But then she plans to major in drama at Sarah Lawrence.’

‘Yes she was, but you weren’t bad yourself,’ said Nat. ‘We were both very proud of you.’

‘Have you seen the play before, Mr Cartwright?’ asked Kathy.

‘Yes, when Su Ling and I visited Stratford. The nurse was played by Celia Johnson, but I don’t suppose you’ve even heard of her.’

‘Brief Encounter,’ Kathy responded immediately.

‘Noel Coward,’ Luke said.

‘And Trevor Howard played opposite her,’ said Kathy. Nat nodded at his son, who was still dressed as Romeo.

‘You must be the first Romeo to have fallen for the nurse,’ said Su Ling.

Kathy grinned. ‘It’s his Oedipus complex,’ she said. ‘And how did Miss Johnson translate the part? When my drama teacher saw it as an undergraduate with Dame Edith Evans, she said she played the nurse like a school matron — strict and firm, but loving.’

‘No,’ said Su Ling, ‘Celia Johnson portrayed her as slightly dotty, erratic but also loving.’

‘What an interesting idea. I must look up the director. Of course I would like to have played Juliet, but I’m just not good looking enough,’ she added matter-of-factly.

‘But you’re beautiful,’ said Luke.

‘You’re hardly a reliable judge on that subject, Luke,’ she said, taking his hand. ‘After all, you’ve been wearing glasses since the age of four.’

Nat smiled, and thought how lucky Luke was to have Kathy as a friend.

‘Kathy, would you like to come and spend a few days with us during the summer vacation?’ asked Nat.

‘Yes, if it’s not going to cause you too much trouble, Mr Cartwright,’ Kathy replied. ‘Because I wouldn’t want to be in your way.’

‘Be in my way?’ queried Nat.

‘Yes, Luke tells me that you’ll be running for governor.’

‘Local banker runs for governor’ ran the banner headline in the Hartford Courant. An inside page was given over to a profile of the brilliant young financier who, twenty-five years earlier had been awarded the Medal of Honour, bringing his career up to date with the role he’d played in the merger between the small family bank of Russell’s, with its eleven local branches, and Fairchild’s with its one hundred and two establishments spread right across the state. Nat smiled when he recalled the confessional at St Joseph’s, and the graceful way Murray Goldblatz continued to convey the impression that the original idea had been Nat’s. Nat had continued to learn valuable lessons from Murray, who never lowered his guard or his standards.

The Courant’s editorial suggested that Nat’s decision to run against Ralph Elliot for the Republican nomination had opened up the contest, as both were outstanding candidates at the top of their professions. The editorial did not come out in favour of either man, but promised to report fairly on the duel between the banker and the lawyer, who were known not to like each other. ‘Mrs Hunter will also run’, they added in the final paragraph almost as an after-thought, which summed up the Courant’s view on her chances now that Nat had allowed his name to go forward.

Nat felt well satisfied with the press and television coverage that followed his announcement, and even more pleased by the favourable public reaction on the street, Tom had taken a two-month leave of absence from the bank to run Nat’s campaign, and Murray Goldblatz sent a substantial cheque for the campaign fund.

The first meeting was held at Tom’s home that evening, when Nat’s chief of staff explained to his carefully selected team what they would be up against during the next six weeks.

Rising before the sun each morning, and collapsing in bed after midnight had few compensations, but an unexpected one for Nat was Luke’s fascination with the electoral process. He spent his vacation accompanying his father everywhere, often with Kathy by his side. Nat grew to like her more and more as each day passed.

Nat took a little time getting used to the new routine, and being reminded by Tom that you can’t bark out instructions to volunteers, and you must always thank them, however little they’ve done and however badly they’ve done it. But even with six speeches and a dozen meetings a day, the learning curve proved steep.

It quickly became clear that Elliot had been out on the stump for several weeks, hoping his early groundwork would give him an unassailable advantage. Nat soon realized that although the first caucus in Ipswich would only yield seventeen electoral votes, its importance was disproportionate to the numbers involved, as in New Hampshire at a presidential election. He visited every one of the caucus voters and never left in any doubt that Elliot had been there before him. Although his rival had already locked up several delegates, there remained a few waverers who were undecided or simply didn’t trust the man.