Kane and Abel (Kane & Abel 1)

'Yes I am, Alan.'

'Well, let's meet at the Ritz at one o'clock. I look forward to seeing you then, Anne!

One o'clock, only three hours away. Her mind switched from Alan to William to Henry, but settled on Milly Preston. Could it be true? Anne decided to take a long warm bath and put on a new dress. It didn't help. She felt, and was beginnhig to look, bloated. Her ankles and calves, which had always been so elegant and so slim, were becoming mottled and puffy. It was a little frightening to conjecture how much worse things might betome before the baby was born.

She sighed at herself in the mirror and did the best she could with her outward appearance.

'You look very smart, Anne. If I weren't an old bachelor considered well past it, I'd flirt with you shamelessly,' said the silver haired banker, greeting her with a kiss on both cheeks as though he were a French general.

He guided her to his table. It was an unspoken tradition that the table in the comer was always occupied by the chairman of Kane and Cabot, if he were not lunching at the bank. Richard had done so and now it was the turn - of Alan Lloyd. It was the first occasion that Anne had sat at that table with anyone. Waiters fluttered around them like starlings, seeming to know exactly when to disappear and reappear without interrupting a private conversation.

'When's the baby due, Anne?'

'Oh, not for another three months.'

'No complications, I hope. I seem to remember 'Well,' admitted Anne, 'the doctor sees me once a week and pulls long faces about my blood pressure, but I'm not too worried.'

'I'm so glad, my dear,' he said and touched her hand gently as an uncle might. 'You do look rather tired, I hope you're not overdoing things.'

Alan'Lloyd raised his hand slightlyi A waiter materialised at his side, and they both ordered.

'Anne, I want to seek some advice from you.'

Anne was painfully aware of Alan Lloyd's gift for diplomacy. He wasn't having lunch with her for advice. There was no doubt in her mind that he had come to dispense it - kindly.

'Do you have any idea how weU Henry's real estate projects are going?'

'No, I don't,' said Anne. 'I never involve myself with Henry's business activities. You'll remember I didn't with Richard's cither.,Why? Is there any cause for concern?'

'No, no, none of which we at the bank are aware. On the contrary, we know Henry is bidding for a large city contract to build the new hospital complex. I was only enquiring, because he has come to the bank for a loan of five hundred thousand dollars.'

Anne was stunned.

'I see that surprises you,' he said. 'Now, we know from your stock account that you have a little under twenty thousand dollars in reserve, while running a small overdraft of seventeen thousand dollars on your personal accounL'

Anne put down her soup spoon, horrified. She had not realised that she was so badly overdrawn. Alan could see her distress.

'That's not what this lunch is about, Anne,' he added quickly. 'The bank is quite happy to lose money on. the personal account for the rest of your life. William is making over a million dollars a year on the interest from his trust, so your overdraft is hardly significant, nor indeed is the five hundred thousand Henry is requesting, if it were to receive your backing as William's legal guardian!

'I didn't realise that I bad any authority over William's trust money,'

said Anne.

'You don't on the capital sum, but legally the interest earned from his trust can be invested in any project thought to benefit William, and is under the guardianship of yourself, myself and Milly Preston as godparents until William is twenty - one. Now as chairman of William's trust I can put up that five hundred thousand with your backing. Milly has already informed me that &he would be quite happy to give her approval so that would give you two votes and my opinion would therefore be invalid!

'Milly Preston has already given her approval, Alan?'

'Yes. Hasn't she mentioned the matter to you?'

Anne did not reply immediately. 'What is your opinion?' she asked finally.

'Well, I haven~t seen Henry's accounts, because he only started his company eighteen months ago and he doesn't bank with us, so I have no idea what expenditure is over income for the current year and what return he is predicting for 1923.'

'You realise that during the last eighteen months I've given Henry five hundred thousand of my own money?' said Anne.

'My chief teller informs me any time a large amount of - cash is withdrawn from any account. I didn't know that was what you were using the money for, and it was none of my business, Anne. That money was left to you by Richard and is yours to spend as you see fit.