Hugh sighed. "Essentially this happened because of something Edward did while he was Senior Partner. It was a mistake, a huge mistake, and he lost a lot of money, more than a million pounds. I've been trying to hold everything together since then, but today my luck ran out."
"I just didn't know this could happen!" said Rachel.
Hugh said: "You should get some of your money back but not for a year or more."
Dan put his arm around Rachel but she would not be consoled. "And what is going to happen to all the wretched women who come here for help?"
Hugh looked so wounded that Maisie wanted to tell Rachel to shut up. "I would gladly give you the money out of my own pocket," he said. "But I've lost everything too."
"Surely something can be done?" she persisted.
"I did try. I've just come from Ben Greenbourne's house. I asked him to rescue the bank and pay the creditors, but he refused. He has troubles of his own, poor man: apparently his granddaughter Rebecca has run off with her boyfriend. Anyway, without his support nothing can be done."
Rachel stood up. "I think I'd better go and see my father."
"I must go to the House of Commons," Dan said.
They went out.
Maisie's heart was full. She was dismayed at the prospect of closing the hospital, and rocked by the sudden destruction of all she had worked for; but most of all she ached for Hugh. She recalled, as if it were yesterday, the night seventeen years ago, after the Goodwood races, when Hugh had told her his life story; and she could hear now the agony in his voice when he told her that his father had gone bankrupt and taken his own life. He had said then that he was going to be the cleverest, most conservative and richest banker in the world one day--as if he believed that would ease the pain of his loss. And perhaps it would have. But instead he had suffered the same fate as his father.
Their eyes met across the room. Maisie read a silent appeal in his look. Slowly she got up and went to him. Standing beside his chair, she took his head in her hands and cradled it on her bosom, stroking his hair. Tentatively he put his arm around her waist, touching her gingerly at first, then hugging her to him hard. And then, at last, he began to cry.
