regulations, especially as the Eisenhower administration was settled into its second term in the White House and had never shown any interest in pursuing the original enquiry.
William was fascinated to read that Henry Osborne was once again in financial trouble, and that Rosnovski still kept bailing him out. William wondered for how much longer that would go on, and what Henry had on Rosnovski. Was it possible that Rosnovski had enough problems of his *wn without adding William Kane to them? Cohen's report reviewed progress on the eight new hotels Rosnovski was building across the - world.
The London Baron was losing money and the Lagos Baron was out of commission; otherwise he continued to grow in strength. William re - read the attached clipping from the Sunday Express, reporting that Florentyna Rosnovski had not opened the Edinburgh Baron, and he thought about his son. Then he closed the report and locked the file in his safe, convinced there was nothing in it of importance to concern himself with. His chauffeur drove him home.
William regretted his early loss of temper with Richard. Although he did not want the Rosnovski girl in his life, he wished he had not turned his back so irrevocably on his only son. Kate had pleaded on Richard's behalf, and she and William had had a long and bitter argument - so rare in their married life - which they had been unable to resolve. Kate tried every tactic from gentle persuasion to tears, but nothing seemed to move William. Virginia and Lucy also missed their brother. Miere's no one who will be critical of my paintinw said Virginia.
'Don't you mean rude?' asked Kate.
Virginia tried to smile.
Lucy used to lock herself in the bathroom, turn on the water, and write secret letters to Richard, who could never figure out why they always seemed damp. No one dared to mention Richard's name in the house in front of William, but it was causing a sad rift within the family.
He had tried spending more time at the bank, even workIng round the clock in the hope that it might help. It didr~t. The bank was once again making heavy demands on his energy at the very time when he most felt like a rest He had appointed six new vice - presidents over the previous two years, hoping they would take some of the load off his shoul - ders. 'Me reverse had turned out to be the case. They had created more work and more decisions from him to make and the brightest of them, Jake Thomas, already looked the most likely candidate to take William's place as chairman if Richard did not give up the Rosnovski girl. Although the profits of the bank continued to rise each year, William found he was no longer interested in making money for money's sake. Perhaps he now faced the same problem that Charles Lester had encountered: he had no son to leave his fortune and the chairmanship to now that he had cut Richard out of his life, rewritten his will and dismantled his trust.
In the year of their silver wedding anniversary, William decided to take Kate and the girls for a long holiday to Europe in the hope that it might help to put Richard out of their minds. They flew to London on a Boeing 707 and stayed at the Ritz. The hotel brought back many happy memories of William!s first trip to Europe with Kate. They made a sendmental journey to Oxford and showed Virginia and Lucy the university city, and then went on to Stratford - on - Avon to see some Shakespeare: Richard the Third with Laurence Olivier. They could have wished for a king with another name.
On the return journey from Stratford they stopped at the church in Henley - on - Thames where William and Kate had been married. They would have stayed at the Bell Inn again, but they still had only one vacant room.
Am argument started between William and Kate in the car on the way back to London as to whether it had been the Reverend Tukesbury or the Reverend Dukesbury who had married them. They came to no satisfactory conclusion before reaching the Ritz. On one thing they were able to agree; the new roof on the parish church had worn well.
William kissed Kate gently when he climbed into bed that night. 'Best five hundred pounds I ever invested,' he said.
They flew on to Italy a week later, having seen every English sight any self - respecting American tourist is meant to visit and many they usually miss. In Rome, the girls drank too much bad Italian wine and made themselves iff on the night of Virginia's birthday, while William ate too much good pasta and put on seven pounds. All of them would have been so much happier if they could have talked of the forbidden topic of Richard. Virginia cried that night and Kate tried to comfort her.
'Why doesn't someone tell Daddy that some things are more important than pride?' Virginia kept asking.
Kate had no reply.
When they returned to New York, William - was refreshed and eager once again to plunge back into his work at the bank. He lost the seven pounds in seven days.