Sons of Fortune

NOVELS

Not
a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

Shall
We Tell the President?

Kane
and Abel

The
Prodigal Daughter

First
Among
Equals

A
Matter of
Honour

As
the Crow Flies

Honour
Among
Thieves

The
Fourth Estate

The
Eleventh Commandment

SHORT
 
STORIES

A
Quiver Full of Arrows

A
Twist in the Tale

Twelve
Red Herrings

To
Cut a Long Story Short

The
Collected Short Stories

PLAYS

Beyond
Reasonable Doubt

Exclusive

The
Accused

PRISON DIARIES

Volume
One –
Belmarsh
: Hell

Volume
Two – Wayland: Purgatory

Volume
Three – North Sea Camp: Heaven

Sons of Fortune

St. Martin’s Press

J

New York

Copyright 2003

by
Jeffrey Archer.

All rights reserved. Printed in

the
United States of
America. No part of this

book
may be used or
reproduced in any manner

whatsoever
without written permission except in the

case
of brief
quotations embodied in critical

articles
or reviews. For
information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue,
New

York, N.Y. 10010.

ISBN 0-312-31319-5

First Edition: January 2003

10 9876 5 4321

James .
BROVVM LIBRARY

WILLIAMSPOFIT.
PEWNA 17701

To Ed and Pricilla

S
usan
plonked
the ice cream firmly on Michael Cartwright’s head.
It was the first occasion the two of them had met, or that was what Michael’s
best man claimed when Susan and Michael were married twenty-one years later.

Both
of them were three years old at the time, and when Michael burst into tears,
Susan’s mother rushed over to find out what the problem was. All Susan was
willing to say on the subject, and she repeated it several times, was, “Well,
he asked for it, didn’t he?” Susan ended up with a spanking. Not the ideal
start for any romance.

The
next recorded meeting, according to the best man, was when they both arrived at
their elementary school.

Susan
declared with a knowing air that Michael was a cry-baby, and
what’s
more, a sneak
. Michael told the other boys that he would share his
graham crackers with anyone who was willing to pull Susan Illingworth’s
pigtails. Few boys tried a second time.

At
the end of their first year, Susan and Michael were jointly awarded the class
prize. Their teacher considered it the best course of action if she hoped to
prevent another ice-cream incident. Susan told her friends that Michael’s mother
did his homework for him, to which Michael responded that at least it was in
his own handwriting.

The
rivalry continued unabated through junior and senior high
Until
they departed for different universities, Michael to Connecticut State and
Susan to Georgetown. For the next four years, they both worked hard at avoiding
each other.

In
fact the next occasion their paths crossed was, ironically, at Susan’s home,
when her parents threw a surprise graduation party for their daughter. The
biggest surprise was not that Michael accepted the invitation, but that he
turned up.

Susan
didn’t recognize her old rival immediately, partly because he had grown four
inches and was, for the first time, taller than her. It wasn’t until she
offered him a glass of wine and Michael remarked, “At least this time you
didn’t pour it all over me,” that she realized who the tall handsome man was.

“God,
I behaved dreadfully, didn’t I,” said Susan, wanting him to deny it.

“Yes,
you did,” he said, “but then I expect I deserved it.”

“You
did,” she said, biting her tongue.

They
chatted like old friends, and Susan was surprised at how disappointed she felt
when a classmate from Georgetown joined them and started flirting with Michael.
They didn’t speak to each other again that evening.

Michael
phoned the following day and invited her to see Spencer Tracy and Katharine
Hepburn in Adam’s Rib.

Susan
had already seen the movie, but still heard herself accepting, and couldn’t
believe how long she spent trying on different dresses before he arrived for
that first date.

Susan
enjoyed the film, even though it was her second time, and wondered if Michael
would put an arm around her shoulder when Spencer Tracey kissed Katharine
Hepburn. He didn’t. But when they left the movie house, he took her hand as
they crossed the road, and didn’t let it go until they reached the coffee shop.
That was when they had their first row, well, disagreement. Michael admitted
that he was going to vote for Thomas Dewey in November, while Susan made it
clear that she wanted the incumbent Democrat, Harry Truman, to remain in the
White House. The waiter placed the ice cream in front of Susan. She stared down
at it.

“Don’t
even think about it,” Michael said.

Susan
wasn’t surprised when he called the following day, although she had been
sitting by the phone for over an hour pretending to be reading.

Michael
admitted to his mother over breakfast that morning it had been love at first
sight.

“But
you’ve known Susan for years,” remarked his mother.

“No,
I haven’t, Mom,” he replied, “I met her for the first time yesterday.”

Both
sets of parents were delighted, but not surprised, when they became engaged a
year later, after all, they’d hardly spent a day apart since Susan’s graduation
party. Both had landed jobs within days of leaving college, Michael as a
trainee with the Hartford Life Insurance Co. and Susan as a history teacher at
Jefferson High, so they decided to get married during the summer vacation.

What
they hadn’t planned was that Susan would become pregnant while they were on
their honeymoon.

Michael
couldn’t hide his delight at the thought of being a father, and when Dr.
Greenwood told them in the sixth month that it was going to be twins he was
doubly delighted.

“Well,
at least that will solve one problem,” was his first reaction.

“Namely?”
asked Susan.

“One
can be a Republican, and the other a Democrat.”

“Not
if I have anything to do with it,” said Susan, rubbing her stomach.

Susan
continued teaching until her eighth month, which happily coincided with the
Easter vacation. She arrived at the hospital on the twenty-eighth day of the
ninth month carrying a small suitcase.

Michael
left work early and joined her a few minutes later, with the news that he had
been promoted to account executive.

“What
does that mean?” asked Susan.

“It’s
a fancy title for an insurance salesman,” Michael told her. “But it does
include a small pay raise, which can only help now we’re going to have two more
mouths to feed.”

Once Susan was settled in her room, Dr.

Greenwood
suggested to Michael that he wait outside during the delivery, as with twins
there just might be complications.

Michael
paced up and down the long corridor.

Whenever
he reached the portrait of Josiah Preston hanging on the far wall, he turned
and retraced his steps. On the first few of these route marches, Michael didn’t
stop to read the long biography printed below the portrait of the hospital’s
founder. By the time the doctor emerged through the double doors, Michael knew
the man’s entire life history by heart.

The
green-clad figure walked slowly toward him before removing his mask. Michael
tried to fathom the expression on his face. In his profession it was an
advantage to be able to decipher expressions and second-guess thoughts, because
when it came to selling life insurance you needed to anticipate any anxieties a
potential client might have.

However,
when it came to this life insurance policy, the doctor gave nothing away. When
they came face-to-face, he smiled and said, “Congratulations, Mr. Cartwright,
you have two healthy sons.”

Susan
had delivered two boys, Nat at 4:37 and Peter at 4:43 that afternoon. For the
next hour, the parents took turns cuddling them, until Dr. Greenwood suggested
that perhaps mother and babies should be allowed to rest. “Having to feed two
children will prove exhausting enough. I shall put them both in the special
care nursery overnight,” he added.

“Nothing
to worry about, because it’s something we always do with twins.”

Michael
accompanied his two sons to the nursery, where once again he was asked to wait
in the corridor. The proud father pressed his nose up against the pane of glass
that divided the corridor from the row of cribs, gazing at the boys as they lay
sleeping, wanting to tell everyone who passed, “they’re both mine.” He smiled
at the nurse who was standing by their side keeping a watchful eye over the
latest arrivals. She was placing name tags around their tiny wrists.

Michael
couldn’t remember how long he remained there before eventually returning to his
wife’s bedside. When he opened the door, he was pleased to find that Susan was
fast asleep. He kissed her gently on the forehead. “I’ll see you in the
morning, honey, just before I go to work,” ignoring the fact that she couldn’t
hear a word. Michael left her, walked down the corridor and stepped into the
elevator to find Dr. Greenwood had exchanged his green scrubs for a sports
jacket and gray flannels.

“I
wish the” were all that easy.” he told the proud father as the elevator stopped
on the ground floor. “Still, I’ll drop by this evening, Mr. Cartwright, to
check on your wife and see how the twins are doing.

Not
that I anticipate any problems.”

“Thank
you, doctor,” said Michael. “Thank you.”

Dr.
Greenwood smiled, and would have left the hospital and driven home had he not
spotted an elegant lady coming through the swing doors. He walked quickly
across to join Ruth Davenport.

Michael
Cartwright glanced back to see the doctor holding open the elevator doors for
two women, one heavily pregnant. An anxious look had replaced Dr. Greenwood’s
warm smile. Michael only hoped that the doctor’s latest charge would have as
uncomplicated a birth as Susan had managed. He strolled across to his car,
trying to think about what needed to be done next, still unable to remove the
broad grin from his face.

The
first thing he must do was phone his parents... grandparents.
truth
davenport had already accepted that this would be her
last chance. Dr. Greenwood, for professional reasons, would not have put it
quite so bluntly, although after two miscarriages in as many years, he could
not advise his patient to risk becoming pregnant again.