Empire of Gold

2


England


The Royal Bournemouth Hospital was on the coastal resort’s eastern outskirts, and Eddie and Nina’s first stop after leaving Heathrow airport. Eddie practically skidded the rented Ford Mondeo into a space in the car park and jumped out. Surprised at being left behind, Nina hurried after him. Entering the hospital, she found him at reception, demanding to know where to find his grandmother. The woman at the desk wasn’t keen on his uncharacteristically brusque manner, but gave the information. Again, Nina was left trailing behind as he strode through the corridors.

She caught up outside a room on the next floor, where familiar faces waited: Elizabeth Chase, Nina’s sister-in-law, and her daughter Holly. Both looked drawn and tired, but relieved to see the new arrivals. ‘Uncle Eddie!’ said Holly, hugging him. ‘And Nina, hi!’

‘How is she?’ asked Eddie after the greetings were concluded.

‘Much better than when I called you yesterday,’ said Elizabeth. ‘It’s lucky I was with her when she collapsed – the ambulance got her here very quickly, and she responded well to treatment. They’re probably going to discharge her this afternoon – they’re just doing a couple more tests.’

‘Thank God. Is it okay to see her?’

‘Yes, fine. Come on.’ Nina noted that Elizabeth checked her watch before opening the door, but thought no more of it as she followed them into the room.

The smell alone, the tang of industrial-strength disinfectants, set Eddie’s nerves on edge. Like most people he had a dislike of hospitals, but in his case it was enhanced by the memory of friends who had been taken into one and never come out. His unease increased when he saw the frail figure in the bed. ‘Hi, Nan,’ he said, more quietly than he had intended.

‘Edward!’ replied his grandmother, delight evident even behind the oxygen mask covering her mouth and nose. ‘Oh, my little lambchop, come here! Give your poor old nan a kiss.’

He went to the bedside and kissed her cheek, letting her embrace him as best she could around the mask’s hose. ‘How are you, Nan?’

She released him, a small but deep cough escaping her throat. ‘I’ve been better. But it’s really picked me up, seeing you. And Nina too! It’s lovely to see you both again.’

‘We got here as fast as we could,’ he told her. ‘So they’ve got you on oxygen therapy?’

‘The best treatment for emphysema with a side effect of pulmonary hypertension, so we’ve been told,’ said Elizabeth. ‘Which would have been much less likely to have happened if you’d stopped smoking.’

Nan laughed faintly, coughing again. ‘At my age, there aren’t many pleasures left in life. Except seeing my family. Oh, I’m so happy that you came, Edward. I worry about you over there in America.’

‘How come?’ he asked.

‘Well, what if you get ill or have an accident? I’ve heard horrible stories about American hospitals, the way they throw you out on the street if you don’t have enough money, being charged hundreds of dollars for an aspirin . . . ’

‘It’s not quite that bad,’ said Nina, amused.

‘So they’re going to let you go home this afternoon?’ Eddie asked.

Nan nodded. ‘Elizabeth wants me to stay with her, but I’d rather go back to my own house.’

‘No, you’re staying with us, Nan,’ Elizabeth insisted. She indicated the oxygen cylinder beside the bed. ‘You need to keep the mask on until the doctors say you’re better, and you can’t possibly carry that tank up the stairs on your own.’

Nan seemed less than happy at being told what to do by her granddaughter, but acquiesced. ‘Don’t worry, Nan,’ Eddie said. ‘I’ll help you with all this stuff.’

‘Oh, thank you. Are you going to be here long? I know you’re both very busy.’

‘Don’t know yet. Nina’s got a work thing, but we’ll probably be around for a few days.’

‘Good. It would be lovely if you could take me for a walk while you’re here.’

‘Ahem,’ said Holly, pointing at a wheelchair.

Nan frowned. ‘Oh, all right. If you could take me for a roll!’

‘No problem, Nan,’ said Eddie. He glanced round as the door opened, expecting to see a doctor entering. ‘Maybe tomorrow . . . ’ He tailed off at the sight of the man who came into the room.

At first, Nina had no idea who the new arrival might be – until with a start she realised that his eyes were just like those of Eddie and Elizabeth. A relative. Beyond that, his appearance had more in common with her sister-in-law than her husband; he was taller than Eddie by at least four inches, face lean and tapered rather than square, lithe even through the inevitable spread of late middle age – she guessed him to be around sixty. Despite this, he was still clearly highly active, carrying himself almost with a swagger in his expensive smart-casual clothing.

‘Well, well,’ he said on seeing Eddie. ‘What a surprise!’ The wink he gave to Elizabeth showed it was nothing of the sort.

‘Yeah,’ Eddie replied, glaring at his sister.

‘So,’ said the man, ‘long time no see, Edward.’

The scathing reply Eddie wanted to give was tempered by the presence of his grandmother and niece. Instead, he said, ‘Yeah, it’s been a while. Twenty-two years.’

The uncomfortable pause that followed was ended when Holly skipped across the room to embrace the newcomer. ‘Hi, Grandad!’

‘Hiya, hiya!’ he replied. ‘How’s my favourite granddaughter?’

‘Your only granddaughter,’ she pointed out.

‘Well, that makes you even more special, doesn’t it?’ He kissed her cheek, then released her and regarded Nina. ‘And Holly’s told me a lot about you. You must be Nina.’

‘That’s right,’ Nina said. ‘So you must be . . . ’ She knew, but still nudged Eddie for a proper introduction.

Eddie’s contempt was barely concealed. ‘This is my – dad.’ The momentary pause, Nina realised, was to cover what had become almost a conditioned reflex; on the rare occasions when he mentioned his father, the younger Chase almost invariably preceded it with an insulting adjective.

‘Larry Chase,’ said the man in question, extending a hand. She shook it. ‘Great to meet such a big celebrity.’

‘I wouldn’t call myself that,’ she replied, extricating herself from his firm grip.

‘But you’re certainly famous. I don’t think anyone who saw the opening of the Sphinx on TV last year will forget you!’

Her cheeks prickled at the reminder of her unplanned global television appearance. ‘It’s an unfortunate by-product of the job.’

Larry smiled. ‘You’re being too modest.’ He turned to Nan. ‘So, how are you, Catherine?’

While he and Nan spoke, Eddie none too gently ushered Elizabeth into a corner. ‘F*cking hell, Lizzie!’ he hissed. ‘Why didn’t you tell me he was coming?’

‘Because if I had, you would have found some excuse to avoid him,’ she replied in an icy whisper.

‘Yeah, because I don’t want anything to bloody do with him!’

‘I told you in New York last year that it was time you tried to mend some bridges. And when you asked me for his phone number, I thought you were going to do that – but since it’s now eight months later and nothing’s happened, I decided to move things along.’

Eddie had asked for the telephone number, after witnessing another estranged father and son reconciling, but in the end his deep-rooted resentments had prevented him from making the call. ‘You should have minded your own f*cking business.’

‘And you should grow up,’ she snapped. ‘Like you said, it’s been over twenty years since you last saw each other. Dad’s changed; it’s time you did too.’

‘Only thing that’s changed about him is that he’s got less hair and more gut.’

‘The same could be said about you. For God’s sake, Eddie, the least you can do is be civil. For Nan’s sake, if nothing else.’

He couldn’t offer a counter to that. Fuming, he turned away from his sister, to see Larry engaged in conversation with Nina once more. He quickly returned to them, interposing himself to give his father an overt cold shoulder.

But it was too late. ‘Larry’s invited us for dinner tonight,’ said Nina, narrowing her eyes in disapproval of his unsubtle blocking manoeuvre.

‘Yeah? Shame we can’t make it.’

‘I’ve accepted.’

His face darkened. ‘Oh, you have, have you?’

‘Yes, I have. For both of us.’ She leaned round him to address Larry. ‘It’ll be a pleasure.’

Larry smiled. ‘I’ll tell my wife to make something special. Look forward to seeing you. Both.’ He said goodbye to his other family members, apologising for having to return to work, then with a wave and a jingle of his expensive gold wristwatch he departed.

‘Ooh, that was an unexpected pleasure,’ said Nan. ‘Wasn’t it, Edward?’

‘Yeah, it was unexpected,’ he replied through his teeth.

A doctor entered and went to Nan’s bedside. She had recovered enough to be discharged, he said; she would need to continue oxygen therapy for several days, but the severe breathing difficulty that had caused her hospitalisation had been eased and her blood pressure lowered. Eddie offered to help, but Elizabeth insisted that she and Holly could handle it, and that he and Nina should check into their hotel before meeting them at Elizabeth’s house. ‘That way,’ Elizabeth added, ‘you’ll have plenty of time to get ready before going to Dad’s tonight.’

‘I can’t wait,’ Eddie growled.

A few minutes later, he was less restrained. ‘For f*ck’s sake, Nina!’ he barked as they cleared the hospital doors. ‘Why did you say yes to dinner? Lizzie sticking her bloody nose in I expect, but you? You’re my wife, you’re supposed to be on my side!’

‘Yes, I’m your wife,’ Nina shot back, ‘and hey, guess what that means? Larry’s my father-in-law! When he invites me to dinner, I can hardly flip the bird in his face. You’re the one who’s got problems with him, not me – I just met the man. I’m not going to be rude to him for no reason, especially not in front of Nan and Holly.’

‘Told you plenty of bloody reasons.’

‘You’re hardly an unbiased source. And it all happened a long time ago—’

‘It still f*cking happened, though.’

‘Then maybe it’s time you put it behind you!’ she cried. ‘What happened with Girilal and Shankarpa in India certainly made you think about contacting him, so why didn’t you?’

‘Changed my mind.’

‘Why?’

‘’Cause my mind changed.’

‘That’s not an answer!’

‘I don’t f*cking care! I don’t like it when people think they know what’s best for me, that’s all. I decided I didn’t want to see him; that should have been enough. But no, Lizzie had to stick her oar in, and then you backed her up!’

‘He’s still your father, Eddie. What would you have done if it had been Larry in that bed instead of Nan?’

They reached the car. ‘I wouldn’t have come.’

She was shocked by his coldness. ‘What?’

‘Look, he had an affair while my mum was dying of cancer!’ Eddie snarled. ‘Some things you just don’t forgive. I don’t, anyway. To be honest, I couldn’t give a shit if I never see him again as long as I live.’ He got into the Mondeo and slammed the door.

Nina entered on the other side. She sat in silence for a moment, then turned to him. ‘There’s something I never told you,’ she said quietly. ‘I once got into a huge fight with my parents – they were going on their expedition to Tibet right in the middle of my exams, and they absolutely refused to let me go with them, said my exams were more important. And I was so mad at them. I was a teenage girl being denied something she really wanted, so I said all kinds of things I wish I hadn’t. But they went without me anyway, and . . . that’s when they died.’

She lowered her head. ‘It was just a one-off thing, a stupid argument. I loved them. But . . . ’ She looked up at him, tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. ‘I can’t change the past, I can’t bring them back. But I would give anything to have been able to apologise to them before they left. I’m not saying you’ve got anything to apologise for, but if you’ve got a chance to settle your differences you should take it. If this is the last time you ever see him, do you really want it to be like this?’

After a long pause, Eddie blew out a frustrated breath. ‘All right. We’ll go for dinner,’ he said, reluctance clear in every word. ‘But I’m only doing it for you, okay? Not for Lizzie, and definitely not for him.’

She wiped her eyes and smiled. ‘Thanks. But you’re not only doing it for me – you’re doing it for yourself too.’

He squeezed her hand, then started the car. ‘Well, whoever I’m doing it for, let’s hope it’s not a huge f*cking mistake.’