Best Kept Secret

12





‘I’LL DO ANYTHING, my darling,’ he said, ‘but please don’t break off our engagement.’

‘How can I be expected to face the world after your mother humiliated me in front of your family, your friends and even the servants?’

‘I understand,’ said Giles, ‘of course I do, but Mother was clearly not in her right mind. She can’t have realized what she was doing.’

‘You said you’ll do anything?’ said Virginia, toying with her engagement ring.

‘Anything, my darling.’

‘The first thing you must do is sack your secretary. And her replacement must meet with my approval.’

‘Consider it done,’ said Giles meekly.

‘And tomorrow, you will appoint a leading firm of lawyers to contest the will and, whatever the consequences, you’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure we win.’

‘I’ve already consulted Sir Cuthbert Makins KC.’

‘Tooth and nail,’ repeated Virginia.

‘Tooth and nail,’ said Giles. ‘Anything else?’

‘Yes. When the wedding invitations are sent out next week, I, and I alone, will approve the guest list.’

‘But that could mean—’

‘It will. Because I want everyone who was in that room to know what it feels like to be rejected.’ Giles bowed his head. ‘Ah, I see,’ said Virginia, removing her engagement ring. ‘So you didn’t really mean you’d do anything.’

‘Yes I did, my darling. I agree, you alone can decide who’s invited to the wedding.’

‘And finally,’ said Virginia, ‘you will instruct Mr Siddons to issue a court order removing every member of the Clifton family from Barrington Hall.’

‘But where will they live?’

‘I don’t give a damn where they live,’ said Virginia. ‘The time has come for you to decide whether you want to spend the rest of your life with me, or with them.’

‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you,’ said Giles.

‘Then that’s settled, Bunny,’ said Virginia, as she put the engagement ring back on, and began to undo the buttons on the front of her dress.



Harry was reading The Times, and Emma the Telegraph, when the phone rang. The door opened and Denby entered the breakfast room.

‘It’s your publisher, Mr Collins, on the line, sir. He wondered if he might have a word with you.’

‘I doubt if that’s how he put it,’ said Harry as he folded his newspaper.

Emma was so engrossed in the article she was reading that she didn’t even look up when her husband left the room. She had come to the end of it by the time he returned.

‘Let me guess,’ she said.

‘Billy’s had calls from most of the national papers, as well as the BBC, asking if I want to make a statement.’

‘What did you say?’

‘No comment. I told him there was no need to add fuel to this particular fire.’

‘I can’t imagine that will satisfy Billy Collins,’ said Emma. ‘All he’s interested in is selling books.’

‘He didn’t expect anything else, and he’s not complaining. He told me he’ll be shipping a third reprint of the paperback into the bookshops early next week.’

‘Would you like to hear how the Telegraph is reporting it?’

‘Do I have to?’ said Harry as he sat back down at the breakfast table.

Emma ignored the comment and began reading out loud.

‘ “The wedding took place yesterday of Sir Giles Barrington MC MP and The Lady Virginia Fenwick, the only daughter of the Ninth Earl of Fenwick. The bride wore a gown designed by Mr Norman—”’

‘At least spare me that,’ said Harry.

Emma skipped a couple of paragraphs. ‘“Four hundred guests attended the ceremony, which was held at the Church of St Margaret’s, Westminster. The service was conducted by the Right Reverend George Hastings, Bishop of Ripon. Afterwards, a reception was held on the terrace of the House of Commons. Among the guests were Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, The Earl Mountbatten of Burma, The Right Hon. Clement Attlee, Leader of the Opposition, and The Right Hon. Mr William Morrison, speaker of the House of Commons. The list of guests who attended the wedding makes interesting reading, but far more fascinating are the names of those who were absent, either because they did not receive an invitation, or because they did not wish to attend. Not one member of the Barrington family other than Sir Giles himself was on the guest list. The absence of his two sisters, Mrs Emma Clifton and Miss Grace Barrington, as well as his brother-in-law, Harry Clifton, the popular author, remains something of a mystery, especially as it was announced some weeks ago that he would be Sir Giles’s best man.” ’

‘So who was the best man?’ asked Harry.

‘Dr Algernon Deakins of Balliol College, Oxford.’

‘Dear Deakins,’ said Harry. ‘An excellent choice. He certainly would have been on time, and there would have been no chance of him mislaying the ring. Is there anything else?’

‘I’m afraid so. “What makes this even more of a mystery is that six years ago, when the case of Barrington v. Clifton was before the House of Lords and a vote was taken to decide who should inherit the Barrington title and estates, Sir Giles and Mr Clifton seemed to be in accord when the Lord Chancellor gave judgment in favour of Sir Giles. The happy couple,”’ continued Emma, ‘“will spend their honeymoon at Sir Giles’s villa in Tuscany.”

‘That’s a bit rich,’ said Emma, looking up. ‘The villa was left to Grace and me to dispose of as we saw fit.’

‘Behave yourself, Emma,’ said Harry. ‘You saw fit to let Giles have the villa in exchange for us being allowed to move into the Manor House until the courts decide on the validity of the will. Is that it?’

‘No, the really juicy bit is still to come. “However, it now looks as if a major rift has divided the family following the death of Sir Giles’s mother, Lady Elizabeth Barrington. In her recently published will, she left the bulk of her estate to her two daughters, Emma and Grace, while bequeathing nothing to her only son. Sir Giles has issued proceedings to contest the will, and the case will be heard in the High Court next month.” That’s it. What about The Times?’

‘Far more sober. Just the facts, no speculation. But Billy Collins tells me there’s a photograph of Cleopatra on the front pages of the Mail and the Express, and the Mirror’s headline is “Battle of the Cats”.’

‘How can it have come to this?’ said Emma. ‘What I’ll never understand is how Giles could have allowed that woman to stop his own family attending the wedding.’

‘I can’t understand it either,’ said Harry, ‘but then I never understood how the Prince of Wales could give up the throne for an American divorcee. I suspect your mother was right. Giles is simply besotted with the woman.’

‘If my mother had wanted me to give you up,’ said Emma, ‘I would have defied her.’ She gave him a warm smile. ‘So I have some sympathy with my brother.’



For the next fortnight, photographs of Sir Giles and Lady Barrington on their honeymoon in Tuscany appeared in most of the national papers.

Harry’s fourth novel, Mightier than the Sword, was published on the day the Barringtons returned from Italy. The following morning the same photograph appeared on every front page except The Times.

When the happy couple stepped off the train at Waterloo, they had to pass a W.H. Smith bookshop on the way to their car. There was only one novel displayed in vast numbers in the window. A week later, Mightier than the Sword made it on to the bestseller list, and it remained there right up until the opening day of the trial.

All Harry had to say was that no one understood how to promote a book better than Billy Collins.