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Chapters (23)
  1. Bello:
  2. Contents
  3. Ann Cleeves
  4. Ann Cleeves
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Chapter Twelve
  17. Chapter Thirteen
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Chapter Fifteen
  20. Chapter Sixteen
  21. Chapter Seventeen
  22. Chapter Eighteen
  23. Copyright

Marcus Grenville had spent most of the morning in his office on the telephone to party advisers in Westminster. He knew that they would sacrifice him immediately if they thought it was in the party’s interests, and he wanted to head off disaster. He had seen it done before to colleagues who caused embarrassment. Rumours would be started, off the record interviews would be given to lobby correspondents, coded messages would be passed to the initiated:

‘Quite a sound man, Grenville, in his own way,’ they would say, ‘but he’s never been, you know, one of us. All that business about the environment, for instance. Jolly important, of course, but not something you’d consider as mainstream policy. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if he didn’t decide to stand down at the next election. To allow him to contribute to the conservation debate outside parliament.’

So the assumption that he was about to leave would make his position untenable and he would be forced to resign.

He spent the first part of the morning mobilising support, calling in old favours. Confidently he assured his friends that the story would have blown over by the weekend, that in fact he was doing them a favour by distracting attention from the economy. By midday he thought he had achieved a reasonable power base and that he had gained, at least, a few days’ grace. There would be no question of his being forced to resign immediately.

When he came in to lunch he was ebullient, sweating a little after the effort of the morning’s work. He was prepared to be optimistic. It was all publicity, he said as he sat down to the meal. All part of the rough and tumble of parliamentary life. At least the punters would know who he was.

Chapter Fifteen

When Molly realised what lay at the bottom of Joanna Barton’s unhappiness she wondered how she could have been so blind that she had not seen it before. She was surprised at the Grenvilles’ skill in keeping the thing secret. Ursula had known, of course, had surely guessed even before Alex had confirmed it to her. But she was unsure about Simon Barton. She still was not sure what part he had played in it all.