(1988) The Golden Room (21 page)

She recognized the man’s voice immediately. ‘This is Harold T. Armbruster,’ he said. ‘Is this Miss Minna Lester?’

Minna, from long habit, almost corrected him by saying she was Minna Everleigh. She caught herself in time. ‘Yes, this is Minna Lester.’

‘How are you? Actually, I’m calling to speak to your nephew. Is Bruce around? I want to congratulate him on his horse’s magnificent winning of the American Derby.’

Minna was enjoying this. ‘He’s out at Washington Park, turning away all the bidders for Frontier.’

‘I can understand that,’ said Armbruster. ‘I was hoping he’d treat me as a special bidder. I’d certainly like to buy that horse, run him a little longer, put him to stud. Will you tell Bruce I’m interested?’

‘Gladly,’ said Minna. ‘But I’m afraid it won’t make any difference to Bruce, Mr Armbruster.’

‘You’re sure of that?’

‘I’m positive,’ asserted Minna.

‘A $25,000 purse may seem a fortune to him now as a young man, but later he’ll need all the money he can get.’

‘He made $15,000 on his win tickets.’

‘Even that can run out,’ continued Armbruster. ‘I want to tell him that for his future he will still require a steady, well-paying executive job. The offer I made him is still open.’

‘You mean provided he marries your daughter Judith.’

‘Why, yes, of course. He’d be in the family then, he’d be one of us. Then I’d know I could trust him wholly even in the most sensitive financial matters.’

‘I think I can answer for Bruce,’ said Minna. ‘Nice lady that your daughter is, I don’t think Bruce has his mind on marriage today. Or, in fact, on any pursuit other than breeding horses in Kentucky.’

‘Too bad. Becoming vice-president of one of the country’s largest meat-packing firms is nothing to sneeze at.’

‘Mr Armbruster, in that regard, I remind you that Bruce is still a vegetarian. You can speak to him yourself at the

wedding next week. But I must tell you it will be one wedding - not two.’

With that call out of the way for Armbruster, and having concentrated at the work in his plant in the afternoon, his mind returned to a more immediate concern that evening after dinner.

The memory of his own marriage in Milwaukee was still vivid. Or rather, more exactly, the event that preceded his marriage so many years ago. Armbruster’s father had taken him aside and told him that any young man unschooled in sex should gain some experience before his wedding night. One sexual encounter with a professional would relieve his tension about what was ahead with Pearl. Therefore, as a pre-wedding gift, his father had taken him to a well-known Milwaukee brothel for his first knowledge of sex with a woman.

Armbruster recalled that he had been terrified, yet he could not deny his father, and besides, he wanted to satisfy his curiosity and get it over with.

At the brothel, the young woman had been advised in advance that her customer was a virgin, and she had been instructed to treat him with consideration.

It had worked out well, better than he had hoped, and when he and Pearl had undressed for their wedding night, he had been ready. He had felt experienced, unafraid of sex with his bride.

Now, with Alan about to be married, Armbruster felt that his own son should enjoy the advantage of the same initiation into the mysteries of sex that he himself had undergone as a youth.

His mind made up to provide Alan with a sexual encounter the following evening, he had gone to the plant to make inquiries about the best brothel to which he might treat his son. For himself, Armbruster knew very little about brothels, except what he had overheard from his friends’ bantering gossip. He had never been to one himself in his life with Pearl; in fact, had never been unfaithful to her even once.

Sometimes he saw stories in the press about the city’s notorious brothels, but he had always ignored them as wasteful pornographic trash. In truth, he did not know the name of a single brothel in Chicago, but he was not above making inquiries to find out which was the best.

During the following day he met separately with two of his plant directors and his senior foreman.

He frankly told each of them the plan he had in mind for Alan. After doing this, he asked each one to give him advice on which brothel in Chicago they would recommend for the bridegroom’s first serious experience.

To a man, each of his advisers had suggested the same brothel. To a man, each had told him, ‘Take your boy to the Everleigh Club on Dearborn.’

Armbruster thought that the Everleigh Club rang a bell. It sounded familiar. Yet, he did not know about it. He assumed that this oversight was due to the fact that, like an ostrich that buried its head in the sand, he had always buried his eyes and his ears in his business. He’d paid no attention to anything on the outside.

He remembered having been told how to go about this initiation in the Everleigh Club. He must reserve a table for Alan and himself in the Club’s expensive restaurant. He and Alan must spend lavishly on a good meal with fine champagne. After that, he must request entertainment upstairs for his son.

After supper at home, Armbruster told his son that he would like to speak privately with him in the library.

Once settled and at ease behind closed doors, Armbruster made his proposal to Alan. It was not really a proposal, but rather an order.

‘Alan,’ he began, ‘in a few days you are going to be wedded to a lovely virgin from the South. That part is fine. But what is awkward, Alan, is that you too are a virgin. It is not becoming for you to be so totally inexperienced on your wedding night.’

‘Why not?’ Alan answered. ‘After our wedding night I’ll be experienced, and Cathleen will be too.’

‘My son, listen to me, as I listened to my father before I was married. The wedding night can be a horrendous encounter, unless you know what you are doing. You can fumble about, do things wrong. A bad start can give you a bad marriage.’

‘What are you trying to tell me?’

‘That you need one sexual experience before you have the more meaningful one with Cathleen. You need another woman - a professional woman - beforehand.’

Alan protested. ‘I don’t need anyone and I don’t want anyone before my wife. Dad, I’ll have no problems with her, I promise you. I know about the female anatomy from my college courses in biology. I know something more important. Every time I set eyes on Cathleen, my penis grows stiff. I think that’s all I need to know.’

‘You need another woman first,’ Armbruster persisted. ‘We’ll do it my way. I’ve learned the most luxurious brothel in Chicago is the Everleigh Club on Dearborn Street. Industrialists and celebrities go there regularly to enjoy its amenities. I’ve already made a reservation for supper there tomorrow evening. That’s how it is done. We will have supper in the Everleigh Club, and a few drinks to loosen you up, and then I’ll arrange for you to go upstairs and have your experience with one of their pretty young girls. I’ll wait for you downstairs. By the time you come down, you’ll be a man, my boy, a real man and grateful to me for your knowledge. Expect to accompany me to the Everleigh Club at eight o’clock tomorrow evening.’

At the Everleigh Club that night there was consternation.

Edmund had caught up with Minna and Aida and reported to them that Harold T. Armbruster had made a reservation for supper for the very next evening for his son and himself.

‘I took the reservation,’ said Edmund, ‘but I know that Mr Armbruster is the last person you want to see here.’

Aida immediately fell into a panic. ‘You’ve got to cancel

him. Make up any reason you can. If he should see us here, and realize what we do, he’d call off the wedding. You’ve got to see that he’s not admitted, because …’

‘No,’ Minna interrupted. ‘That would be too suspicious.’ She addressed Edmund. ‘Are they coming here simply to dine?’

Edmund cleared his throat. ‘Not exactly, Miss Minna. To dine, of course, but after that he said he would like some entertainment for his son upstairs. He explained that his son was getting married in a few days, and that the boy was a virgin, and he wanted him’ to have at least one experience.’

‘We can’t allow that,’ Aida said fearfully to Minna. ‘The truth might get out.’

‘It won’t get out,’ said Minna forcefully. ‘It will remain between father and son, I assure you. I have no objection to letting Alan go upstairs and get some pleasure with one of the girls. If that’s what his father wants, he should be allowed to do it. Cathleen and Bruce will never find out. Be sensible, Aida, several of the girls here have been taking trustworthy regulars upstairs to entertain them. There’s no reason one of them can’t have a roll with Alan Armbruster too.’

She weighed what was next on her mind.

‘The important thing is to let this take place in the Everleigh Club, yet not let them know the so-called socialite aunts are running the house. Aida, you and I will just have to slip into the office and remain out of sight when the Armbrusters arrive, and stay hidden until they leave. We can do that with no trouble.’

‘You mean stay locked up all tomorrow evening?’

‘Not quite,’ said Minna. ‘We can go about our normal activity. But the minute that Edmund welcomes the Armbrusters in the entry hall, he can leave them a moment and rush in to Professor Vanderpool at the piano. You know all those music cues, those codes, we gave him to play when he wants to warn us of danger? Well, when the Armbrusters arrive, let him play “More Work for the Undertaker.” That

will be the song that tells us the Armbrusters are here. Wherever you and I are, we’ll hear it played and hurry into the study. When the coast is clear, Professor Vanderpool is to play it again. How does that sound?’

Aida was mollified. ‘It sounds foolproof.’

‘It is,’ said Minna, ‘so don’t worry. Let the Armbrusters come and go. The reputation of Cathleen and Bruce Lester won’t be damaged. I give you my word.’

At noon the following day, Bruce Lester had gone in search of Karen. He found her setting tables in the restaurant.

He went to her. ‘Karen, have you got a moment?’

‘Time on my hands,’ she said. ‘I have no real work until supper this evening.’

‘Good. Can we have a word outside?’

Puzzled, Karen accompanied Bruce out of the restaurant. In the hallway she said, ‘We can talk here.’

‘It’s nothing earth-shaking, just something to feed my curiosity.’

‘About what?’

‘My aunts’ home here,’ said Bruce. ‘I’ve never had a real look at it. Whenever I ask Aunt Minna to show me around, she always says she’s too busy, and so is Aida. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not. Anyway, I’d like to see the place. Since Minna and Aida are still asleep, I thought you could guide me through the mansion.’

Karen was immediately reluctant. ‘It’s not my house. I’m not certain I can do that.’

Bruce persisted. ‘I’m sure there is nothing to hide. Unless you know of something.’

Torn between loyalty to Minna and Aida and the desire to please Bruce, Karen said hesitantly, ‘Of course, I don’t know their home as well as they do. But I’ve been all through it a number of times, and I could show you whatever I know.’

‘That’s all I want,’ said Bruce. ‘It’s such a tremendous

place for two small ladies, I’d like to see what they did with it. You don’t mind?’

‘Well, I suppose it’s all right,’ said Karen, taking Bruce by the hand. ‘We can start with the library Minna is so proud of.’

She directed Bruce past the restaurant and into the library.

Bruce surveyed the library. ‘All this intellect intimidates me,’ he admitted.

‘It is intimidating,’ agreed Karen. ‘Minna has over 3,000 books here. Look at that complete collection of Shelley. Over there, nineteen volumes of Chinese poems. Next to them, Guy de Maupassant. A complete collection of Edgar Allen Poe. Minna told me that Poe was a relative of hers on her mother’s side.’

‘I never knew that.’

‘Did you know your Aunt Minna is writing a book of her own?’ said Karen. ‘She even discussed it with me. It’s to be called Poets, Prophets and Gods.”

Bruce shook his head in wonder. ‘Minna’s brother, my father … I always thought he was the big brain in the family. I think I can say now that Aunt Minna is at least equal to him.’

As they left the library, Karen suggested that they skip the Art Gallery. ‘Not my strong area,’ she said. ‘I only know the reproduction of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. I don’t know the paintings at all. Want to go to Minna’s favourite retreat -the Gold Room?’

‘You mean the one with the small pure gold piano and the gold cuspidors?’ said Bruce. ‘I’ve already seen it. I can’t imagine anything gaudier.’

Karen laughed. ‘Well, start imagining,’ she said, leading him past the Gold Room. ‘Have you seen the Copper Room?’

‘No, but I’d like to.’

Karen led him into the Copper Room. The walls were panelled in copper and hammered brass. The furniture was made of Arabian brass. In the centre was a mahogany table with a table top made of Italian marble. All around the chamber were cages of yellow canaries singing in full voice.

They went on to the Rose Room, with its rococo pink wall hangings and its scattering of rounded easy chairs and divans upholstered in pale-pink silk damask.

Next, they came to the Grand Ballroom, dominated by a massive chandelier of cut-glass drops, shedding light on a hardwood floor made of rare woods in mosaic patterns.

‘There’s more?’ asked Bruce with amazement, as they resumed walking.

‘Here’s the Chinese Room,’ said Karen.

Bruce studied the Oriental hangings and draperies. In the middle of the chamber he saw a teak table holding an oversized brass beaker filled with packages wrapped in red tissue. ‘What’s this?’ he inquired.

Karen started to explain that it was used by the girls, then caught herself. ‘Those packages are Chinese firecrackers. When diners come in here for champagne, your Aunt Minna sets a few of them off. If they make more noise than the pulling of a champagne cork, Minna gives the diner a - a playful kiss on the cheek.’

‘That’s an unusual game,’ said Bruce.

They went on to the Moorish Room. It was furnished with deep African couches and the fountain sprayed a musky, intoxicating perfume. ‘Your Aunt Minna likes to open boxes of live butterflies.’