The Chainmakers (33 page)

'I know, but Clancy says we have to get the law changed if we don't like it. He thinks it will be, eventually.'

'You sound as if you're coming round to his point of view,' Jennie said, smiling.

'No, I'm not, but I understand his argument and I always have. To be honest I think I would have agreed with him if it wasn't for the restaurants. We sell very little liquor in the catering business apart from beer, and none at all in the deli's. But we have always served wines and spirits in the restaurants, and I was not prepared to lose most of our best customers. If they can't buy a drink at Sullivans they will simply go elsewhere.'

The first course arrived and they ate for a few moments in silence. 'The sole is very good,' Jennie said, and Anna smiled.

'Did I ever tell you about the first time I lunched here? I was trying to collect menu's, it was when James was small. I used to go to the best places, choose a specialty, then send
for the chef to congratulate him. They would be so flattered they usually gave me the recipe.' She laughed. 'The chef here rumbled me, it was most embarrassing.'

'What happened?'

'I invited him to dinner on his day off so I could convince him I was a serious cook, on condition that if he was sufficiently impressed he would give me the recipe.'

'And did he?'

'Yes, and several others too.' Anna's expression changed and she added, 'Those were good days really. It seems we were happier when we were struggling to build the business than we are now we are successful.'

Something in her tone made Jennie look up sharply. 'Come now Anna, it can't be so bad. Clancy is a lovely man, you know he is. You have just been telling me how you defied his wishes...' She lowered her voice. 'I mean about the liquor. In most marriages you wouldn't have got away with it. He would have put his foot down and that would be that.'

'He tried to,' Anna said, 'But I would not allow the restaurants to go under. I admit I dug my heels in, after all I am an equal partner. In the end we agreed Clancy should have his way with the catering business and the deli's, and I should do what I wanted with the restaurants. He...' she bit her lip. 'He hasn't set foot inside a Sullivans restaurant since that day.'

'Oh.' Jennie said, hardly knowing what to say. She knew Clancy had always been fully involved in all aspects of the business, and this seemed serious.

'He still does our accounts.' Anna continued. 'As we don't officially sell drinks any longer we enter all the income from them under "puddings and desserts". Last week over breakfast he told me he was pleased to see we had made three hundred and twenty per cent increase on "puddings and desserts" already this year.'

They both began to giggle again. 'I know it sounds funny but it's not like Clancy to be sarcastic,' Anna said.

Jennie considered. 'I don't think he was being sarcastic,' she said. 'I think he was trying to point out that you should put the income under other headings too, so it isn't queried when your books are audited. Anyway,' she said, seeing the look of surprise on Anna's face and wanting to change the subject, 'Tell me about your birthday treat, your trip to Boston.'

'We had a lovely time' Anna said. 'It was something Clancy promised me years ago when we first arrived in New York. We were very poor, and one Sunday afternoon we walked across the Brooklyn bridge and Clancy told me that when we were rich, he would take me on one of the steamships. We would have a stateroom, he said, and a wonderful dinner, and wake up in the Falls River and get on the train to Boston to see the sights. You know, Jennie, at the time it seemed like an impossible dream, but we did it all, last weekend. I enjoyed every moment, especially Boston, and we didn't speak about business once.'

'There you are then. I told you Clancy is a lovely man. How romantic that he remembered, and made your dream come true.'

'Yes,' Anna said. 'Clancy is considerate, and was trying very hard, but somehow it didn't work. We studiously avoided mentioning the business, or Prohibition, and it all became stilted and false. We have always been able to talk things over together, and suddenly we can't.'

'He knows you are getting supplies from Paolo?' Jennie asked.

'We haven't discussed it, but I expect he's guessed,' Anna said. 'And I'm afraid he's never had much time for Vittorio.'

'Neither have I, to be honest,' Jennie said, as she watched Anna's face cloud with worry. 'Give it time Anna, it will be alright, you'll see,' she sympathised.

'Of course it will.' Anna said, a little too brightly. 'And here's the souffle, doesn't it look good?'

She waited until the waiter had served them and then prompted Jennie. 'Now for your news. I want to hear about you and Paolo. Is love's young dream still alive?'

Jennie blushed. 'Yes, it is,' she whispered. 'Oh Anna, you have no idea. He is so kind, and so good to me.'

'And so passionate and so handsome and such fun...' Anna interrupted laughing. 'I know, I've heard it all before, I never knew two such love birds. Paolo said just the same about you last time I spoke to him.' She pulled a prim face. 'It's hardly proper Jennie, to be so much in love after being married for almost five years.'

As their laughter ended Jennie said seriously, 'You remember surely Anna, what it is like to be in love? You must have felt like this at one time?'

Anna had a momentary vision of the beach at Locquirec. Two children were playing, and she saw Robert's face above her, his eyes filled with love and desire... She found her voice. 'Oh yes, Jennie,' she said softly, 'I know what you mean.'

'Well then,' Jennie said happily. 'Try and concentrate on that time, how you felt. I know you and Clancy are having a difficult time, but thinking back to the beginning may help.'

Anna smiled and murmured that she would try, and then asked quickly, 'Is Paolo getting on any better with Vittorio?'

Jennie nodded. 'Yes, and we have to thank Prohibition for it. Six months ago things were almost at breaking point. You remember I told you Paolo had refused to have anything to do with... the... shall we say the more controversial side of Vittorio's business?'

'Yes. I know Paolo runs the legitimate side.' Anna said.

'He does help with the gambling too,' Jennie admitted, 'He says that doesn't hurt anyone... well not much. Six months ago Vittorio was really putting the pressure on Paolo, it became very difficult. When Prohibition came in Vittorio wanted to run bootleg liquor, and Paolo agreed to do it. Vittorio was overjoyed, he felt that Paolo had come back into the fold, so to speak.'

'Why did Paolo agree so readily?' Anna asked. 'After all, he's running a great risk.'

'Risk never worried him,' Jennie said. 'He just feels that some of his uncle's activities are morally wrong and he doesn't want to be part of them.' She lowered her voice. 'The rackets, and the girls,' she said quietly. 'Paolo has never had anything to do with those things. If he hadn't been Vittorio's nephew he would never have dared to defy him. But Prohibition is a different matter. Paolo feels that people should be free to decide for themselves what they drink, he sees himself as helping them to have a choice.'

'I agree, but that's not how the law sees it,' Anna said, 'And the same applies to me if they catch me serving it.'

'I don't think the law is the main problem as far as Paolo is concerned,' Jennie said. 'It's the rivalry between the bootleggers which worries him.'

'You don't think it will get really bad?' Anna asked.

'Perhaps not, now that Al Capone has gone to join Torrio in Chicago.'

Anna shuddered. The newspapers had been full of the gangland murder of Big Jim Colosimo in Chicago, which had been attributed to Capone. 'I'm sure there's no real risk,' she said reassuringly. 'I've never had the slightest problem so far.'

'But you aren't typical Anna,' Jennie reminded her. 'Your order is mainly for the higher quality wines and spirits which are quietly smuggled in from Europe. The trouble comes from the bootleggers running booze from Cuba, and moonshine from the distilleries for the speakeasies and beer flats.'

'But Paolo isn't involved in that is he?' Anna asked.

'I think so. You must remember he has a huge transport fleet at his disposal, so it seems to make sense to him.'

'I see.'

Anna felt a strange premonition, as if she had heard some bad news, but Jenny appeared unconcerned. 'We have one thing to be thankful for Anna. You and I cannot be blamed for any of this. As we are just silly women we could not possibly understand what is going on. It is a good defence, one which most men would believe even now we have the vote.'

Jennie expected Anna to laugh, but she appeared hardly to have heard the remark. 'I couldn't admit it to him Jennie,' she said slowly, 'But perhaps Clancy is right. When you decide to break the law you don't know where it will end.'

~

James made his way cheerfully along the sidewalk, happy to be going home for dinner. He boarded at school during the week, and as he grew older he felt the restrictions of school life more acutely. He looked forward to the relative freedom of the weekends, and especially his mother's cooking. His enjoyment of home life made him even more determined to win the current battle with his father, after all, he thought, I am sixteen now, not a child any more.

He bounded up the steps to the house and turned his key in the front door. As he opened it he heard the sound of raised voices from the drawing room.

James stood quietly in the hall, they were making so much noise they hadn't heard him come in. He looked around anxiously, and then remembered that Lottie had gone to her sewing bee, and the daily woman would be gone by now. James moved towards the partly open door to the drawing room, mesmerised by the sound of his parent's anger. They never argued, he could not recall them ever being angry with each other. His mother was in full flow.

'How could I have told you?' she cried. Her voice was almost a shout. 'How can I tell you anything when you cut yourself off from what is happening? You never come near...'

'What do you expect me to do?' His father yelled back. 'To carry on as if nothing is happening? As if I agree with all your dirty back street deals?'

'I expect you to be realistic,' Anna said more quietly, although her voice was steely. 'We've had over two years of Prohibition and all your prophesies of doom have come to nothing.'

'Nothing?' Clancy exploded. 'Give me strength! The woman's blind, so she is. There have been murders on the streets and gangland warfare...'

'Not near any of our restaurants.' Anna shouted back. 'There has not been a single incident. Our profits are excellent, and that is largely due to Paolo.'

'I see.' Clancy interrupted, his voice becoming intense with anger. 'And to protect your profits you are willing to risk James's future.'

'How dare you? How dare you say that?' Anna was beside herself.

James walked in. It took a few seconds for his presence to register, and then his father said gruffly, 'So you're here?'

'Yes. What's this all about? What's the matter?'

His mother made to speak, but his father held up his hand sternly to stop her, and said, 'It's about you James.'

'About me? About my not wanting to go on to University?'

'Not exactly, but I expect that is part of it.' James watched his father as he walked over to the desk. He took a cigar from a leather box and motioned James to a seat. 'Sit down James, we must talk.'