Page 126 of The Gathering Storm

‘And I’ve got an idea for a combination radio-gramophone apparatus. English homes are so small, compared with American, that something compact that covers both functions ought to be a winner. With some kind of storage cupboard built in, to hold the gramophone records. All in a nice walnut veneer case – a handsome piece of furniture in its own right.’

‘Go on,’ she said. ‘What else?’

‘Once I’ve got my feet under the table, I shall be in the right place to exploit the television market too, as soon as they get the broadcasting properly up and running. Though I’m not sure letting the government control the whole thing is the right way to go about things. Licensing it all through the General Post Office! I can’t tell you how quaint that feels – like hitching radio to the Pony Express!’

‘It’s a different country over here,’ Polly said. ‘We do things differently.’

‘You can say that again. It really stifles innovation when you remove competition and pass everything through a government department. It doesn’t look as if I’ll ever have my own television channel, the way I have a radio channel back there – my good old W2XKX.’

‘It’s so much easier in America to get a new business off the ground. Are you afraid you won’t be able to get anywhere over here?’ she added anxiously.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I’m a pretty warm man. I can promise you I’ll always have enough to support you in the style to which you’ve become accustomed.’

‘I’ve heard you’re a millionaire.’

‘Who told you that?’

‘Ethel. She read it in one of her magazines, when you were going out with that film star.’

‘It’s a vulgar phrase, but I suppose it’s true. Will you feel all right about marrying a millionaire?’

‘When?’ she asked bluntly.

‘Whenever you like. You choose the when and the how. But I will have to go back to the States for a while.’ Polly’s face fell, and he reached out for her hand and took it back into his own lap. ‘Don’t look like that! It will only be for a few weeks, while I settle my businesses and see to some financial and personal matters.’

‘Personal matters?’

‘I haven’t got secret mistresses and a dozen love children, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘I wasn’t, but now I am. Why wouldn’t you? You’re a millionaire, and a very handsome man, now I look at you properly.’

‘I am, and always was, a one-man dog, pretty Polly. But there’s Rose – I have to make sure she’s happily settled. And my staff. They’ve been with me for years, especially Wilma and Beanie, and they’re very loyal. I’d like to bring them with me—’

‘Well, do,’ Polly invited.

‘—but I don’t suppose they’d come. And if they don’t want to, I’ll have to make sure they’re all right. Then there’ll be the matter of transferring funds. That’s bound to be complicated. Fortunately, in this age of wonders and electronic communication, I’ll be able to oversee my businesses from here, but it will have to be set up that way, and the right managers put in place. So you see.’

‘I see. How long will all that take?’

He hesitated. He wanted to be reassuring, but there was nothing to be gained by underestimating and later having to let her down. ‘Three months ought to do it.’

‘Three months!’

He closed the other hand as well over her captive one. ‘You trust me, don’t you? You don’t think I’d go over there and not come back?’

‘No, I don’t think that. But it’s such a long time to be without you. And anything could happen.’

‘Darling, anything could happen anywhere. The world is not a safe place – never was.’

She looked at him, and believed he was thinking about his Beth, killed when a car shot out of a side turning as they were passing and smashed into theirs. A horrible random accident. And she thought of the young son of one of her tenants who had been playing on top of a haystack, fell off and landed on a pitchfork, which went through his heart. ‘No, the world is not a safe place,’ she said. ‘That’s why you have to be with the people you love.’

‘We will be together. I’ll see to this business, and come back, and we’ll never have to be apart again. I’ll be with you so much you’ll get sick of me.’

She didn’t smile. ‘What if this war comes?’

‘If it comes, we’ll deal with it together.’ They were silent a moment. Then he said, ‘Do you want to get married right away? Before I go?’

‘When are you thinking of going?’