Noble House

"But Line never put up the 2 million." "Oh but he did. He did it by cable Saturday night. My Swiss bank confirmed the transaction yesterday and the money was duly passed over to the board of General Stores. They accepted so that deal's accomplished now." "Even though Pug's dead?"
"Yes. His widow agreed to the board's recommendation. It's a very good deal by the way. Far better than the Superfoods tender."
"I don't want that, any part of that."
"When I was down in the pit, chatting with Line, he said how happy he was that the General Stores deal was going through. His exact words were, 'Great! 5 mill? I always wanted her to get her drop dead money. She always wanted to be independent, and now, she is. Great!'"
"But at what a cost," she told him, her misery welling. "Line always warned me that drop dead money costs more than you're prepared to pay. It has. I don't want it."
"Money is money. You're not thinking clearly. It was his to give and he gave it to you. Freely."
"You gave it to me."
"You're wrong, he did. I just helped you as you helped me." He sipped his drink. "I'll need to know where to send his profits. You'll remember there were no voting rights included. Who's his trustee?"
"It's a bank. First Central. I'm his executor, along with a man from the bank." She hesitated. "I guess his mother's his heir. She's the only one named in his will—Line, Line was open about that, to me. His ex-wife and their kids are well taken care of and specifically excluded from his will. There's just the voting control to me and the rest goes, the rest to his ma."
"Then she'll be very rich."
"That won't help her." Casey was trying very hard to keep her voice level and the tears away. "I talked to her last night and she broke up, poor lady. She's… she's in her sixties, nice woman, Line's her only son." A tear seeped in spite of her resolve. "She, she asked me to bring him back. His will says he's to be cremated."
"Look, Casey," Dunross said quickly, "perhaps I could make the arr—"
"No. Oh no, thanks, Ian. Everything's done. I've done it. I wanted to do it. The airplane's cleared and all the paper work done."
"When do you leave?"
"At ten tonight."
"Oh." Dunross was surprised. "I'll be there to see you off."
"No, no thanks. The car's fine but there's no ne—"
"I insist."
"No. Please?" She looked at him, begging him.
After a moment he said, "What's your plan?"
"Nothing very much. I'm going to … I'm going to make sure
' all his wishes are taken care of, papers, his will, and wind up his affairs. Then I'll reorganize Par-Con—I'll try to reorganize it as he'd want, and then, then I don't know. All that'll take me thirty days. Maybe I'll be back in thirty days to begin, maybe I'll send Forrester or someone else. I don't know. I'll let you know in thirty days. Everything's covered till then. You've got my numbers. Please call me anytime if there's a problem." She started to get up but he stopped her.
"Before you go there's something I should tell you. I didn't last night because the time wasn't right. Perhaps now is, I'm not sure, but just before I left Line he asked me if I'd consider being a best man." He saw Casey go white and rushed on. "I told him it would be an honor."
"He said me? He wanted to marry me?" she asked incredulously. "We'd been talking about you. Doesn't that follow?" "He never mentioned Orlanda?"
"Not at that time. No. Earlier on he'd been very concerned about her because he was in her flat and didn't know what had happened to her." Dunross watched her. "When I told him she was safe he was very relieved, naturally. When I told him you'd almost been caught in the landslide he almost had a heart attack. Then, just as I was leaving I heard him say softly, 'Guess it'd be too much to hope for those two to be friends.' I wasn't sure if I was meant to hear that —while we were digging he'd been talking to himself a lot." He finished his drink. "I'm sure he meant you, Casey." She shook her head. "It's a good try, Ian. I'll bet it was Orlanda." "I think you're wrong."
Again a silence. "Maybe. Friends?" She looked at him. "Are you going to be friends with Quillan?"
"No. Never. But that's not the same. Orlanda's a nice person. Truly."
"I'm sure." Casey stared at her drink, sipped but did not taste it. "What about Quillan? What happened today? I'm afraid I didn't hear. What did you do about him? I saw you closed at 30.01 but I … I really didn't notice much else."
Dunross felt a sudden glow. Because of the Kotewall catastrophe the governor had ordered the stock market to remain closed all Monday. And the banks, as a sign of mourning. By ten this morning, the Bank of China's cash was on hand in every branch of every bank, throughout the Colony. The bank runs fizzled. By three o'clock many customers were lined up returning to deposit their cash once more. Just before the market opened at ten o'clock this morning Gornt had called him,
"I accept," he had said.
"You don't want to bargain?"
"I want no quarter from you, just as you expect none from me. The papers are on their way." The phone had gone dead.
"What about Quillan?" she asked again.
"We made a deal. We opened at 28 but I let him buy back in at
18."
She gaped at him. Without thinking she made the quick calculation. "That'd cost him just about 2 million. But that's Line's 2 million. So Quillan's off the hook!"
"I told Line the deal and that it'd cost him the 2 million and he laughed. I did point out that with General Stores and the Par-Con deal, his capital loss of 2 is set off against a capital gain of 20 or more." Dunross watched her, gauging her. "I think it's fair that the
2 was forfeit."
"You're not telling me you let Gornt off the hook for nothing?"
"No. I've got my airline back. The control of All Asia Air."
"Ah." Casey shivered remembering the story of that Christmas night when Gornt and his father went unexpectedly to the Great House. Her sadness was brimming. "Do me a favor?"
"Of course. Providing it's not for Quillan."
She had been going to ask Dunross to let Gornt in as a steward, to let him have a box. But now she did not. She knew it would have been a waste of time.
"What favor?"
"Nothing. Nothing now. I'll be off, Ian." Weary, so weary, she got up. Her knees were trembling. All of her was aching monstrously. She held out her hand. He took it and kissed it with the same grace-filled gesture she remembered from the night of the party, the first night in the Long Gallery when, frightened, she had seen the knife buried in the heart of the portrait. All at once her agony crested and she wanted to scream out her hatred of Hong Kong and the people of Hong Kong who had somehow caused the death of her Line. But she did not.
Later, she ordered herself, holding on to the limit of her strength.
Don't break. Don't let go. Be self-contained. You have to, now. Line's gone forever.
"See you soon, Casey."
" 'Bye, Ian," she said and left.
He stared at the closed door a long time, then sighed and pressed a buzzer.
In a moment Claudia came in. "Evening, tai-pan," she said with her enormous warmth. "There're a few calls that should be dealt with—most important, Master Duncan wants to borrow 1,000 HK."
"What the devil for?"
"It seems he wants to buy a diamond ring for a 'lady.' I tried to pry her name out of him but he wouldn't tell."