Should he text Holly and tell her? No, better not until he knew for sure if he was going to be called. He didn’t want to get her hopes up.

Finally, happy with the wording he’d scribbled out and crossed through a million times, he typed it up and pinged it over to Tom. As soon as Tom gave him the go-ahead, he’d send it off via the Commons intranet. And then cross everything he’d get picked.

It didn’t take long for Tom to come back to him, and, taking a deep breath, Charlie filled out the online form and submitted his question. It would now be a nail-biting wait before the results of the shuffle was announced.

Feeling in need of some human interaction, he decided to head off to lunch.

‘All right?’ The chirpy tones of Stephen Brabham, Opposition MP for a constituency a couple along from Charlie’s own, broke into his thoughts. Stephen had entered Parliament at the last general election as a new MP and, a few months more familiar with the place and the processes than Charlie, could often be found tucking into the all-day breakfast in the House of Commons Members’ Tea Room. A man who’d been described by many as far too amenable to be a serious politician, in the short time he’d been working in the Commons, he’d proved surprisingly effective at networking and seemed to be in all places most of the time.

‘Hi, Steve,’ Charlie replied. ‘Early lunch?’

Stephen glanced at his watch. ‘Not exactly. Late breakfast, more like. Was up until all hours sorting out the wording for my speech to the local branch of the National Union of Students.’

‘I’m sure they’ll love it,’ Charlie replied. ‘Government-bashing, I suppose?’ he added wryly.

‘Oh, you know,’ Stephen said airily. ‘Chances are they’ll be more interested in their smartphones than anything I have to say, but you’ve got to take the opportunities where you can, haven’t you? Especially since not all of us have the comfort of a huge, safe majority in our seats.’

‘Touché,’ Charlie grinned. He knew Stephen was only teasing but in some cliques in Westminster, the same accusation could be a lot more vitriolic. ‘Although it’s not something I take for granted, I can assure you.’

‘Not at the moment, perhaps,’ Stephen took another bite of his sausage. ‘But give it a few years and you’ll get complacent like the rest of them on your side.’

‘Nah,’ Charlie knew, from a lot of conversations with the other man (perhaps a few too many in the opinion of some of his fellow party members, who weren’t such believers in collaboration), when Stephen was pulling his leg. ‘I’m well aware of the precariousness of this business.’