Lies and Weddings(56)
“Mum expresses herself too much.”
“Perhaps, but we are not talking about her right now. We are talking about your father, and the lies he has told you.”
“Listen, Dad never lied to me. I know all about the money situation. Dad called me two days ago and told me everything.”
“Money situation. How quaint to call it that. Rufus, the fact that you only found out two days ago that your family is nearing total financial ruin is an absolute travesty. You’re the future Earl of Greshamsbury, but you’re in danger of becoming the Earl of Nothing. What are you going to do about it?”
“That’s why I was on my way home. I figured I needed to talk with my parents.”
Rosina sat back in her seat and chuckled at how nonchalant her nephew seemed about everything. Classic Rufus, his head always in the clouds. “You know, I look at you. You have been so lucky all your life. My sons aren’t so lucky.” Rufus couldn’t help but roll his eyes, while Rosina caught his look and smiled. “I know what you’re thinking. You think your cousins are more fortunate than you.”
“It’s not that I think they’re more fortunate. But the fact is, they do live in a completely different way than I do, and they have trust funds worth hundreds of millions…”
“I don’t know how that rumor ever got started. What trust funds? My boys have no trust funds. Sure, they have the use of houses and cars and planes and they can send their bills to the family office, but you must realize that their father controls every last penny. He has ruled over each of them since the day they were born, and they have no choice but to follow his precise wishes. Peter molded Alexander into a clone of himself and made him go to Harvard. He saw that Adam was a bit of a scoundrel, so he sent him to Harvard Law. And Aurelius, you know what happened on that damn safari[*2] and that’s why Peter always chose a different track for him. My point is, my sons did not have the luxury of pursuing their own passions in the way you and your sisters have been allowed to all your lives.”
“They seem to be doing just fine.”
“They are, because they are obedient. As long as they fulfill their duties to the family, they can enjoy their hobbies. So, Alex wants to build time-share condos on Mars, go right ahead. Adam wants to keep F1 drivers fed and watered, so be it. Aurelius likes to finance paramilitary groups, more power to him. So let me ask you: How are you fulfilling your duty to your family? You got to go to that terribly expensive art school.[*3] You got to spend all your summers chasing waves around the world. You got to convince your mother to build a resort on an island that’s got a live volcano.”
“I never did that! When I took her to see that property, I was hoping she’d buy the land to preserve it, not develop a resort there!”
“Have you ever asked yourself why your mother wanted to develop a resort on the Big Island in the first place? You started spending all your free time in Hawaii. She wanted to be closer to you. She wanted to find a way for you to become more involved in the family business.”
“Are you trying to guilt-trip me? Because I already feel guilty enough…”
“Rufus, I am not interested in guilt. I am only interested in solutions. I want to help you gain access to the funds you’ll need to rescue your family from financial catastrophe.”
“And how are we going to do that?”
“You mean how are you going to do that? I’m going to introduce you to a few key people this weekend, and the rest is up to you. The problem is, you’re far too sheltered; your parents have unfortunately raised you among the children of all these fashionable, grand, and utterly irrelevant aristocrats—the Duke of Upper Colon, the Baroness of Shiba Inu…”
“Wait a minute—aren’t they your friends too? They were all at your Winter Ball on Mauna Kea.”
“Those are your mother’s friends. I might be acquainted with some of them, but to be honest I wouldn’t consider them my friends. If you are the absolute monarch of a country with a hundred billion barrels of proven oil reserves like my darling friend the emir, that’s one thing, but how many of those titled twits came to your mother’s rescue? Exactly zero. They clutched their tiaras and ran straight for their borrowed planes the minute the soufflés started collapsing. My friends are people who invent entire industries, people who influence policy, people who move economies.”
“Oligarchs and despots, how fun,” Rufus muttered through gritted teeth.
“Look, if you’re not going to have an open mind, you’re wasting my time…”
“Okay, okay. You still haven’t told me where we’re going. Let me guess…we’re off to the Davos conference?”
“My god, how boring would that be. I like to have fun, you know? We are going to a wedding in Morocco. So sit back and relax, enjoy some dinner.”
No sooner had Rosina uttered those words than the pretty attendant returned, bearing a square block of granite and placing it on the macassar ebony table that folded out in front of Rufus. Four sashimi-like strips of marbled beef sizzled on the granite. “For the first course, may I offer a hot-stone Miyazaki Prefecture Wagyu with a whiskey-butter foam?”
“I suppose,” Rufus replied.
Skip Notes
*1 Art deco aficionados would recognize that the entire cabin had been designed as an homage to the entrance hall at Eltham Palace.