Lies and Weddings(43)
“Of course,” Thomas said with a grin.
“I’ll never forget what you said when I took you through the house, when you saw the Long Gallery. You said, ‘All this is yours? I’m very sorry.’ You were taking the piss, but I knew right then we’d be friends for life. You understood precisely how I felt about the place. Funny, from the day it dawned on me that I would one day inherit Greshamsbury Hall, I always suspected it would end with me. I’m the eighteenth generation in a long line of poor sods trying to keep the old pile afloat. Just never thought Mother Nature would be the one to finally do the trick.”
“It’s not going to end with you…”
“Ah, but it will. Bellaloha going up in flames—or disintegrating into volcanic ash—is the final nail in the coffin.”
“Surely Lloyd’s will help offset whatever damage there is?”
Francis let out a mordant laugh. “Lloyd’s? It’s never been possible to insure commercial property on the Big Island because of the volcanic activity.”
Thomas almost choked on his lager. “You mean to say you let Arabella spend—how many hundreds of millions—building the resort of her dreams, and none of it is insured?”
Francis nodded slowly.
“My god,” Thomas whispered as he sank into his chair, suddenly feeling the true weight of their conversation. He began doing some calculations in his head. “If you liquidated everything and allowed the creditors to take over the hotels…London and Hong Kong, particularly…”
“Even if we sold off all the hotels, there’s still a huge shortfall because of Bellaloha. We’d still be about two fifty to three hundred million in the hole.”
Thomas shook his head in disbelief, but of course he knew the stark truth about the Gresham finances. It was all a precarious house of cards, and it was finally about to come toppling down.
Francis gave Thomas a pleading look. “I know we’ve been through this before, but is there any way you could make an appeal to…Rene?”
Thomas sighed. “If you weren’t already so indebted to Rene, I’d say it would be worth trying, but it’s too risky at this point. He’s too unpredictable, and last thing we want him to do is call in all his chips now. I don’t suppose you had a chance to talk to Prince Julius?”
“I did. Turns out the prince has been keeping up appearances as well. He made it quite clear he was never going to be in a position to help me—or his son, for that matter. In fact, his precise words regarding Max were, ‘He’s your problem now.’?”
“He really said that?”
“Yes. I’m afraid it’s going to be quite a disappointing honeymoon for Augie and Maxxie, as it sinks in that neither has quite the fortune they assumed the other has,” Francis laughed wearily.
“They’ll be fine.”
“I’m not worried about those two. I’m more concerned about everyone in Greshamsbury that depends on us—the workers, the tenants, the families who’ve lived there for generations. And of course, I’m worried sick about that patient of yours that canceled at the last minute today.”
“Arabella.” Thomas nodded. “Any idea why she canceled?”
“Heaven knows. I tried to talk to her on the flight back, but she locked herself in the bedroom of the plane and refused to come out.”
“She’s still in shock,” Thomas said, shaking his head as he recalled the chaos that ensued as everyone scrambled to evacuate the resort in the midst of the wedding banquet. Most of the guests who had come on their own jets fled the island the same evening, while the remaining few left after the farewell brunch at the Nanea Golf Club the next morning, which better resembled a wake. Eden and Thomas had been fortunate enough to be offered a ride on Freddy Farman-Farmihian’s plane that afternoon, while Bea flew off with one of her Leung cousins and the bridal couple departed for their honeymoon.[*1] Only Rufus remained on the island.
“The wedding was supposed to be Arabella’s crowning glory, but now it’s turned out to be the royal fiasco of the century. She acts like she’s above it all, but you know how she is about such things. Face is so bloody important to her. She thinks Bellaloha is only a temporary loss—I can’t imagine how she’ll react when she finds out the truth,” Francis said numbly.
“How much does she know?” Thomas asked warily.
“She’s known things have been a bit dicey here and there, but she hasn’t a clue how bad it is. It’s all my fault, Tom. I’ve shielded her all these years from the reality of the situation, I can’t really explain why. Maybe I’ve always felt guilty…”
“Guilty of what?”
Francis stared into his whiskey and let out a deep sigh. “Call me crazy—I adore my wife, but when we first got married everyone was just rotten to her. The women, especially. Oh, they were always polite to a fault, but I could see how they closed ranks and froze her out. And of course I pretended nothing was happening but I was so damn ashamed—ashamed of my family, of my friends…people I had known all my life behaving so ignorantly, so cruelly, toward Arabella and the children. If I hadn’t been the earl, I can’t imagine how much worse the kids might have had it.”
“Francis, I had no idea…,” Thomas said.