Page 39 of The Gathering Storm

‘Oh, all right,’ she said, heaving herself up reluctantly. He dragged the steamer chair into the shade of the trumpet vine, and wriggled an umbrella round. Without the intimidating dark glasses she looked forlorn and vulnerable. ‘Are you hungry? Shall I get Wilma to fix you a sandwich?’

Lennie was one of the few people who were shown straight into Al Feinstein’s office with no waiting. Joeseph Kennedy was another, and for the same reason – they had both been big financers of motion pictures, often the same ones. But Kennedy lately had been concentrating on politics, supporting Roosevelt’s campaign and promoting the New Deal – with eight million still unemployed it was needed more than ever. Lennie had lived his life the other way round, having been involved in politics in the twenties and now finding more to interest him in the movies.

Al greeted him with enthusiasm. ‘The Civil War! I was right about it, wasn’t I? This book is dynamite, and it’s going to make a great movie. It’ll be the biggest hit of the decade.’

Lennie was pleased but surprised at the degree of enthusiasm. ‘You liked The Leopards and the Lilies?’

‘The who and the what now?’ Feinstein looked genuinely puzzled round the pacifier of his cigar stub.

‘The Cavaliers and Roundheads,’ Lennie prompted. ‘Romeo and Juliet in seventeenth-century England?’

Al made an impatient gesture. ‘Christ, no, not that shit! I’m talking about the real civil war. North versus South. Southern belles and northern carpetbaggers! This new book! Don’t tell me you haven’t read it?’ He slapped what was evidently a bound proof that was lying on his desk. ‘Gone With the Wind. Not crazy about the title – sounds like a bout of indigestion. But we can change that. Written by some dame or other. Title’s supposed to be a “literary allusion”, for Chrissake. But the book’s the goods all right. It hasn’t even been published yet, but we’re all fighting like cats in a sack over the movie rights.’

‘If it hasn’t been published, it’s no surprise that I haven’t read it,’ Lennie said mildly.

‘It’s hot, I tell you. MGM’s reading it. David Selznick is.’ The director David O. Selznick had recently set up his own company with the ample backing of the fabulously wealthy Jock Whitney. ‘Pandro Berman at RKO. Darryl Zanuck at Fox. Jack Warner at Warner Brothers. And the damn thing isn’t published until June!’

‘With so much competition, it’ll push the price up,’ Lennie said doubtfully.

‘Yeah, but it’s all good publicity. The leading man is perfect for Clark Gable – a big, swashbuckling, womanising bad-boy. The sort to get women swooning. And there’s a feisty female lead who stands up to him – the kinda spunky girl Norma Shearer plays.’

‘You’re thinking, if you get the rights, to borrow them?’

Al cocked his head. ‘I can read you like a book, Lennie my friend. You’re thinking of Rose for this O’Hara female.’

‘That’s the character’s name?’

‘Yeah, there’s an Irish father, rough as a dog’s arse, self-made man, and a la-di-da Southern aristo mother. Lead girl gets the looks from her ma and the spunk from her pa. Nice twist.’

‘It sounds like a good part for Rose,’ Lennie said.

Al narrowed his eyes. ‘If I’m right about this crap – and I’m never wrong – it’d be the making of her. This is box-office gold.’ He did one of his rapid mood changes. ‘Or it’s a bankruptcy claim in waiting. Who knows?’ He shrugged, pushing the proof across the desk. ‘Read it. Go on, take it – I got other copies. Let me know what you think. How’s Rose getting on?’

‘She’s ready to work. Eager for it,’ said Lennie.

‘Divorce not done and dusted yet, is it?’ Al always knew these things.

‘We’re working on it. There’s no hurry, is there? They won’t close a rights deal before the book’s published, will they?’

‘Make sure she stays ready. Read the book. It’s gonna take a lot of dough. I’m gonna need committed investors. Think about it. This is gonna be big.’

Mrs Simpson barely waited for the butler to withdraw before bursting out, ‘I’m absolutely furious! That snake-in-the-grass Mary Kirk! She was always jealous of me because the boys liked me better than her – for all the money she spent on clothes.’

‘What’s she done?’ Emma asked. There were spots of colour in Wally’s usually pale cheeks, and her eyes were sparking.

‘I knew there was something fishy about this holiday. Why did she suddenly decide to come stay with me? And it’s been “Oh, it’s so lovely to be with you, Wally. We don’t see each other often enough, Wally.” The time and money I’ve lavished on that woman – theatre tickets, opera boxes, dinners at York House, weekends at the Fort! She couldn’t hope to have that sort of access to royalty any other way. And I’ve been trailing her round ancient monuments because she adores British history. Of course, it wouldn’t be because Ernest likes all that sort of thing – of course not!’

Emma began to have an inkling of where this was going. ‘What has she done?’ she asked again.

‘She’s having an affair with my husband, that’s what!’

‘Oh dear. Are you sure?’

‘She admits it. They both admit it. All those times he’s been over in New York on business, they were seeing each other – behind my back! She seduced him when he was far from home and lonely. He’d never have fallen for her meagre charms if I’d been around. Now he says he wants to marry her. Now we can see what all that sudden divorce talk was about. Not because he wanted me to choose between him and David – because he was choosing between me and Mary!’

‘Oh, Wally, I’m so sorry,’ Emma said, seeing that she was close to tears. But she thought of Ernest and what had become a comfortless home, a wife who was no wife. She felt sorry for them both.

Wally looked up with stark eyes. ‘I’m nearly forty, Emma. I didn’t start with money or position like some people.’ Another dig, Emma supposed, at Mary Kirk – she hoped not at her. ‘I’ve had to make my own way in the world, and I’ve been through some pretty hard times, I can tell you. I never knew any security until I married Ernest, and everything I’ve done, I’ve done for us, to give us a position in society and solid finances. And now this! Stabbed in the back by the two people closest to me.’