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.The local press tried to build up the story, but the nationals were full of the Abervan coal mine disaster, in which one hundred and sixteen schoolchildren had lost their lives.No editor could find space for Sussex Downs.Charles delivered a thoughtful speech to his association, which was well received.During Question Time, he was relieved to find no embarrassing questions directed at him.When the Hamptons finally said goodnight, Charles took the chairman aside and inquired, "How did you manage it?" "I explained to Mrs.Blenkinsop," replied the chairman, "that if her motion of no confidence was discussed 85FIRST AMONG EQUALSat the annual meeting, it would be awflully hard for the member to back my recommendation that she should receive an Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honors for service to the party.That shouldn't be too hard for you to pull off, should it, Charles?"Every time the phone rang, Raymond assumed it would be the press asking him if he knew someone called Mandy.Often it was a journalist, but all that was needed was a quotable remark on the latest unemployment figures, or a statement of where the Minister stood on devaluation of the pound.It was Mike Molloy, a reporter from the Daily Mirror, who was the first to ask Raymond what he had to say about a statement phoned in to his office by a girl called Mandy Page."I have nothing to say on the subject.Please speak to Sir Roger Pelham, my solicitor," was the Under Secretary's succinct reply.The moment he put the phone down he felt queasy.A few minutes later the phone rang again.Raymond still hadn't moved.He picked up the receiver, his hand still shaking.Pelham confirmed that Molloy had been in touch with him."I presume you made no comment," said Raymond."On the contrary," replied Pelham."I told him the truth." "What?" exploded Raymond."Be thankful she picked a fair journalist, because I expect he'll let this one go.Fleet Street is not quite the bunch of shits everyone imagines them to be," Pelham said uncharacteristically, and added, "They also detest two things--crooked policemen and blackmailers.I don't think you'll see anything in the press tomorrow." Sir,,Roger was wrong- Raymond was standing outside his local newsstand the next morning when it opened at five-thirty, and he 86FIRST AMONG EQUALSsurprised the proprietor by asking for a copy of the Daily Mirror.Raymond Gould was plastered all over page five saying, "Devaluation is not a course I can support while the unemployment figure remains so high." The photograph by the side of the article was unusually flattering.Simon Kerslake read a more detailed account of what the Minister had said on devaluation in the London Times and admired Raymond Gould's firm stand against what was beginning to look like inevitable Government policy.Simon glanced up from his paper and started to consider a ploy that might trap Gould.If he could make the Minister commit himself again and again on devaluation in front of the whole House, he knew that when the inevitable happened, Gould would be left with no choice but to resign.Simon began to pencil a question on the top of his paper before continu- ing to read the front page, but he couldn't concentrate, as his mind kept returning to the news Elizabeth had given him before she went to work.Once.again he looked up from the article, and this time a wide grin spread across his face.It was not the thought of embarrassing Raymond Gould that caused him to smile.A male chauvinist thought had crossed his normally liberal mind."I hope it's a boy," he said out loud.Charles Hampton was glad to be behind the wheel again, and he had the grace to smile when Fiona showed him the photograph of the happy Mrs.Blenkinsop displaying her OBE outside Buckingham Palace to a reporter from the East Sussex News.It was six months to the day of his first meeting with Sir Roger Pelham that Raymond Gould received an account from the solicitor for services rendered-five hundred pounds.878SIM014 LFFT THE HOUSE and drove himself to Whitechapel Road to attend a board meeting of Nethercote and Company.He arrived a few minutes after the four o'clock meeting had begun, quietly took his seat and listened to Ronnie Nethercote describing another coup.Ronnie had signed a contract that morning to take over four major city blocks at a cost of 26 million pounds with a guaranteed rental income of 3.2 million per annum for the first seven years of a twenty-one-year lease.Simon formally congratulated him and asked if this made any difference in the company's timing for going public.He had advised Ronnie not to allow his company shares to be traded on the Stock Exchange until the Tories returned to power."It may mean waiting a couple of years," he had told Ronnie, "but few people now doubt that the Tories will win the next election.Just look at the polls." "We're still planning to wait," Ronnie now assured him."Although the injection of cash that the shares would bring in would be useful [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]