This Was a Man (The Clifton Chronicles #7)(5)

The doctor checked her pulse. ‘I’ve given her a sedative, so she’ll be asleep for a couple of hours. When she wakes she may well imagine for a moment that it was all a nightmare, but once she finds she’s in familiar surroundings she’ll quickly recover and recall exactly what happened. She’s bound to wonder how much you know, so you have a little time to think about that.’

‘I already have,’ said Giles, before accompanying Dr Weeden downstairs and opening the front door. The two men shook hands a second time before the doctor climbed into the front of the black van without a backward glance. The anonymous vehicle drove slowly round Smith Square then turned right and joined the heavy evening traffic.

Once the van was out of sight, Giles closed the door and ran back upstairs. He pulled up a chair and sat down by his sleeping wife.





Giles must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew Karin was sitting up in bed and staring at him. He blinked, smiled and took her in his arms.

‘It’s all over, my darling. You’re safe now,’ he said.

‘I thought if you ever found out, you’d never forgive me,’ she said, clinging on to him.

‘There’s nothing to forgive. Let’s forget about the past and concentrate on the future.’

‘But it’s important I tell you everything,’ said Karin. ‘No more secrets.’

‘Alan Redmayne has already fully briefed me,’ said Giles, trying to reassure her.

‘Not fully,’ Karin said, releasing him. ‘Even he doesn’t know everything, and I can’t go on living a lie.’ Giles looked at her anxiously. ‘The truth is, I used you to get out of Germany. Yes, I liked you, but once I was safely in England I intended to escape from both you and Pengelly and start a new life. And I would have, if I hadn’t fallen in love with you.’ Giles took her hand. ‘But in order to keep you, I had to make sure Pengelly still believed I was working for him. It was Cynthia Forbes-Watson who came to my rescue.’

‘Mine too,’ said Giles. ‘But in my case I fell in love with you after the night we spent together in Berlin. It wasn’t my fault you took a little longer to realize just how lucky you were.’ Karin burst out laughing and wrapped her arms around him. When she released him, Giles said, ‘I’ll go and make you a cup of tea.’

Only the British, thought Karin.





2


‘WHAT TIME ARE WE commanded to attend Her Majesty’s pleasure?’ asked Emma, with a grin, unwilling to admit how proud she was of her husband, and how much she was looking forward to the occasion. Unlike the board meeting she would be chairing later that week, which was rarely far from her mind.

‘Any time between ten and eleven,’ said Harry, checking his invitation card.

‘Did you remember to book the car?’

‘Yesterday afternoon. And I double-checked first thing this morning,’ he added as the front doorbell rang.

‘That will be Seb,’ said Emma. She looked at her watch. ‘And he’s on time for a change.’

‘I don’t think he was ever going to be late for this one,’ Karin said.

Giles rose from his place at the breakfast table when Markham opened the door and stood aside to allow Jessica, Seb and a heavily pregnant Samantha to join them.

‘Have you lot had breakfast?’ Giles asked, as he kissed Samantha on the cheek.

‘Yes, thank you,’ said Seb, as Jessica plonked herself down at the table, buttered a slice of toast and grabbed the marmalade.

‘Clearly not all of you,’ said Harry, grinning at his granddaughter.

‘How much time have I got?’ asked Jessica between mouthfuls.

‘Five minutes at the most,’ said Emma firmly. ‘I don’t want to arrive at the palace any later than ten thirty, young lady.’ Jessica buttered another piece of toast.

‘Giles,’ said Emma, turning to her brother, ‘it was kind of you to put us up for the night, and I’m only sorry you can’t join us.’

‘Immediate family only is the rule,’ said Giles, ‘and quite rightly, otherwise they’d need a football stadium to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend.’

There was a gentle tap on the front door.

‘That will be our driver,’ said Emma. Once again she checked that Harry’s silk tie was straight and removed a grey hair from his morning suit before saying, ‘Follow me.’

‘Once a chairman, always a chairman,’ whispered Giles, as he accompanied his brother-in-law to the front door. Seb and Samantha followed, with Jessica bringing up the rear, now munching her third piece of toast.

As Emma stepped out on to Smith Square, a chauffeur opened the back door of a black limousine. She ushered her flock inside before joining Harry and Jessica on the back seat. Samantha and Seb sat on the two tip-up seats facing them.

‘Are you nervous, Grandpops?’ asked Jessica, as the car moved off and joined the morning traffic.

‘No,’ said Harry. ‘Unless you’re planning to overthrow the state.’

‘Don’t put ideas into her head,’ said Sebastian as they drove past the House of Commons and into Parliament Square.

Even Jessica fell silent when the car drove through Admiralty Arch and Buckingham Palace came into sight. The chauffeur proceeded slowly up the Mall, driving around the statue of Queen Victoria before stopping outside the palace gates. He wound down his window and said to the young Guards officer, ‘Mr Harry Clifton and family.’