O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [77]
He took his daughter’s hands and held them. She was surprised because they rarely touched.
“What if I underwrote an Amanda Blanton Kerr women’s college?”
“Father,” she whispered, trying to gain her equilibrium. “Oh, my dear God,” she said. Don’t get flooded with ideas, she told herself . . . but . . . girls learning medicine and science . . . girls learning whatever there was to learn!
“I can hardly speak,” she said.
“Frankly, I don’t like some of your strange friends and stranger ideas. You must carry it off with dignity for our family honor. I don’t want a women’s school in a constant state of anger. It is an advanced idea, but maybe its time has come.”
Amanda studied Horace Kerr curiously. Now calm, she said, “It is a powerful offer. Are we speaking quid pro quo?”
Horace was struck by the lightning speed of her mind. “I honestly don’t know,” he answered.
“There is a missing member of our cast,” she said.
“Lieutenant O’Hara?”
“Yes.”
“I cannot tell you what great happiness you gave me the night of the Constitution. Yes, I was shocked to learn of his transfer to the War College. You tell me, Amanda.”
“Things have been coming into focus,” she said. What she didn’t say was that an Amanda Kerr College could be her price. “It feels a bit like a conspiracy in the king’s palace.”
“Every house in Baltimore and every house beyond is a kingdom with a conspiracy. Put two human beings together and they’ll conspire. Glen Constable?”
“He’ll do,” she snapped abruptly.
“If indeed this young daughter of his—”
“Dixie.”
“If Dixie is at Tobermory, it would seem quite natural, and there is no hint of your past involvement with the Marine.”
“Yes,” she said crisply.
“Can we look forward to letting your mother know?” he asked.
“You mean, letting the world know.”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Horace answered.
“It will take some time, Father,” Amanda said coldly. “I want to make certain he is properly housebroken.”
“Mistresses?” Horace said right on.
“Doxies.”
“Then you must be his doxie from the first night. You must quench—no, drench, his lust.”
“I can do that,” Amanda assured her father. “When we finally create our Kerr monopoly,” she continued, using unmistakable pronouns, “I should like to be familiar with Maryland’s banking laws, offshore shelters, the nuances of shipbuilding and boardrooms.”
“You are nothing short of brilliant. How you do play your cards! Amazing.”
“You must have been shattered when I wasn’t born a boy.”
“I was,” he said. “Truth. I wanted another son desperately, but I soon knew I would not have traded you for ten sons.”
They embraced, warmly, and, one could say, lovingly.
“You must hear me out,” Horace began. “Women have been pissed off since the beginning of time and not without some justification. A new era will dawn only when enough women with brains can come up to your measure. Physically, men never had much to fear, but it will be frightening to know that females may be our equal in matters of intelligence. Men are not going to stand by idly and say, ‘Come on in, girls, sorry for the past five thousand years.’ You will bash your head in trying to change the way boys and girls work.”
“We got rid of slavery, in a manner of speaking,” she answered. “You had Matthew Fancy.”
“He never argued a case in court.”
“We will see a woman architect, or doctor.”
“The Joan of Arcs and the Cleopatras and the Queen Elizabeths are aberrations and always seem to come to a tragic demise. Step into a boardroom, Amanda, and a wall of molten flame will rise up against you. The basic truth of man’s nature is that men will manage the world, fight its wars, and invent its inventions. I can leave you all my power and riches, but you will have to come to your own peace with your woman’s rage.”
Amanda heard her father as she had never heard him before.
“The occasional Jew may slip into the room with the long polished table. They can be uncommonly clever as well as having incredible money connections.