Free Sins of the Fathers by Susan Howatch Page A

Paul Van Zale’s widow. ‘Maybe Sylvia in San Francisco—’ I began.
    ‘Sylvia,’ said Alicia, still inspecting her glove, ‘is away on a cruise.’
    ‘Sam,’ said Cornelius unevenly, ‘did you tell Vicky that Vivienne wants her to go down to Fort Lauderdale?’
    ‘Yes. She wasn’t interested.’
    ‘Thank God! We couldn’t have approved of that, could we, Alicia?’
    ‘Definitely not,’ said Alicia.
    ‘Besides, I don’t want Vicky to go away!’ cried Cornelius as I opened my mouth to prolong the argument. ‘Let me talk to her
     – I want her to know I didn’t mean to upset her – I want her to know that everything’ll be all right and we love her and want
     her to come home!’
    ‘Yes, but that’s not solving anything, can’t you see? That’s just pretending the problem doesn’t exist!’
    ‘What problem?’
    The door clicked open. Vicky, her face tear-stained, peered in. In the distance the Glenn Miller Orchestra was playing ‘Moonlight
     Serenade.’
    ‘Vicky – honey, we’ve been out of our minds – how could you do this to us – Vicky, we love you! Please, sweetheart, please
     forgive us and come home!’
    Alicia took a cigarette from her purse and lit the tip with a small gold lighter encrusted with emeralds. I had never before
     seen her smoke in Cornelius’ presence. Cornelius was asthmatic.
    ‘Oh Daddy—’
    She ran into his arms and stuck there. The Glenn Miller Orchestra went on playing ‘Moonlight Serenade.’
    ‘Daddy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you – oh Daddy, I love you too …’
    Alicia went to the mirror and examined one of her diamond earrings. Her glance met mine but was instantly averted. After smoothing
     a strand of her dark hair she adjusted the diamond ring on her wedding finger.
    ‘Sweetheart, we’ll work this out, I swear it – just say what you want and I’ll fix it right away—’
    ‘Cornelius.’
    He turned to face his wife. ‘Yes?’
    ‘Nothing … Perhaps if Vicky’s feeling better we should go home now. I think we’ve all imposed long enough on Sam’s hospitality.’
    ‘Daddy,’ said Vicky, ignoring her stepmother, ‘I want to go to Europe for a while.’
    ‘Whatever you want, sweetheart. Europe? I’ll take you myself just as soon as I can make arrangements to leave the office.’
    ‘No, no, that wasn’t what I meant at all! Darling Daddy, I know how you loathe Europe and I wouldn’t dream of dragging you
     back there! I want to go with Uncle Sam.’
    Cornelius and Alicia swivelled to look at me. I cleared my throat and gave an apologetic laugh, but before I could dissociate
     myself from this proposal Alicia said sharply: ‘Don’t be ridiculous, dear. Sam’s a busy man. He doesn’t have the time to chaperon
     you around Europe, and even if he did the idea would still be totally unsuitable. If your father really feels he can sanction
     another trip to Europe I’ll ask your Aunt Emily if she can take you – in fact maybe it would be best if Emily came to New
     York right away to help us sort out this situation,and if Sam will let me use his phone I’ll call her right now in Velletria. Now run along with Daddy, please, and let’s have
     no more melodrama tonight. Cornelius, perhaps you and Vicky could wait for me in the car while I make the call.’
    ‘Sure.’ Cornelius turned obediently to his daughter and took her hand in his. ‘Come along, sweetheart, we’ll work this out,
     I promise you.’
    Vicky looked back over her shoulder at me, and when I smiled at her encouragingly she smiled back. ‘Thanks for listening,
     Uncle Sam,’ she said before allowing herself to be led from the room. The last words I heard her say before the front door
     closed were: ‘Daddy,
please
let me go to college and major in philosophy!’
    In the silence that followed their departure Alicia and I looked at each other wearily.
    ‘My God,’ she said, ‘get me a drink, would you please, Sam? Sherry will do but make it a double. I