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Authors: Jeffrey Archer
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people in the room. Simon could
feel his heart thumping in his chest as the town clerk spun the coin high above
him.
“Tails,” he
said clearly as the coin was at its zenith.
The sovereign
hit the floor and bounced, turning over several times before settling at the
feet of the town clerk.
Simon stared
down at the coin and sighed audibly. The town clerk cleared his throat before
declaring, “Following the decision by lot, I declare the aforementioned Mr.
Simon Kerslake to be the duly elected Member of Parliament for Coventry
Central.”
Simon’s
supporters charged forward and on to the stage and carried him on their
shoulders out of the City Hall and through the streets of Coventry.
Simon’s eyes
searched for Elizabeth but she was lost in the crush.
Barclay’s Bank
presented the golden sovereign to the member the next day, and the editor of
the Coventry Evening Telegraph rang to ask if there had been any particular
reason why he had selected tails.
“Yes,” Simon
replied. “George the Third lost America for us. I wasn’t going to let him lose
Coventry for me.”
Raymond Gould
increased his majority to 12,413 in line with Labour’s massive nationwide
victory, and Joyce was ready for a week’s rest.
Charles Hampton
could never recall accurately the size of his own majority because, as Fiona
explained to the old earl the following morning, “They don’t count the
Conservative vote in Sussex Downs, darling, they weigh it.”
Simon spent the
day after the election traveling around the constituency hoarsely thanking his
supporters for the hard work they had put in. For his most loyal supporter, he
could manage only four more words: “Will you marry me?”
6
I N MOST DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIEs a newly elected leader enjoys a
transitional period during which he is able to announce the policies he intends
to pursue and whom he has selected to implement them. But in Britain, MPs sit
by their phones and wait for forty-eight hours immediately after the election
results have been declared. If a call comes in the first twelve hours, they
will be asked to join the Cabinet of twenty, during the second twelve given a
position as one of the thirty Ministers of State, and the third twelve, made
one of the forty Under Secretaries, of State, and during the final twelve, a
parliamentary private secretary to a Cabinet Minister.
If the phone
hasn’t rung by then, they remain on the back benches.
Raymond
returned from Leeds the moment the count was over, leaving Joyce to carry out
the traditional “thank you” drive across the constituency-
When he wasn’t
sitting by the phone the following day fie was walking around it, nervously
pushing his glasses back up on his nose. The first call came from his mother,
who had rung to congratulate him.
“On what?” he
asked. “Have you heard something?”
“No, love,” she
said, “I just rang to say how pleased I was about your increased majority.”
460h.”
“And to add how
sorry we were not to see you before you left the constituency, especially as
you had to pass the shop on the way to the highway.”
Raymond
remained silent. Not again, Mother, he wanted to say.
The second call
was from a colleague inquiring if Raymond had been offered a job.
“Not so far,”
he said before learning of his contemporary’s promotion.
The third call
was from one of Joyce’s friends.
“When will she
be back?” another Yorkshire accent inquired ..
“I’ve no idea,”
said Raymond, desperate to get the cafler off the line.
“I’D caH again
this afternoon, then.”
“Fine,” said
Raymond putting the phone down quickly.
He disappeared
into the kitchen to make himself a cheese sandwich, but there wasn’t any
cheese, so he ate stale bread smeared with three-week-old butter. He was
halfway through a second slice when the phone rang.
“Raymond?”
He held his
breath.
“Noel. Brewster.”
He exhaled in
exasperation as he recognized the vicar’s voice.
“Can you read
the
feel his heart thumping in his chest as the town clerk spun the coin high above
him.
“Tails,” he
said clearly as the coin was at its zenith.
The sovereign
hit the floor and bounced, turning over several times before settling at the
feet of the town clerk.
Simon stared
down at the coin and sighed audibly. The town clerk cleared his throat before
declaring, “Following the decision by lot, I declare the aforementioned Mr.
Simon Kerslake to be the duly elected Member of Parliament for Coventry
Central.”
Simon’s
supporters charged forward and on to the stage and carried him on their
shoulders out of the City Hall and through the streets of Coventry.
Simon’s eyes
searched for Elizabeth but she was lost in the crush.
Barclay’s Bank
presented the golden sovereign to the member the next day, and the editor of
the Coventry Evening Telegraph rang to ask if there had been any particular
reason why he had selected tails.
“Yes,” Simon
replied. “George the Third lost America for us. I wasn’t going to let him lose
Coventry for me.”
Raymond Gould
increased his majority to 12,413 in line with Labour’s massive nationwide
victory, and Joyce was ready for a week’s rest.
Charles Hampton
could never recall accurately the size of his own majority because, as Fiona
explained to the old earl the following morning, “They don’t count the
Conservative vote in Sussex Downs, darling, they weigh it.”
Simon spent the
day after the election traveling around the constituency hoarsely thanking his
supporters for the hard work they had put in. For his most loyal supporter, he
could manage only four more words: “Will you marry me?”
6
I N MOST DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIEs a newly elected leader enjoys a
transitional period during which he is able to announce the policies he intends
to pursue and whom he has selected to implement them. But in Britain, MPs sit
by their phones and wait for forty-eight hours immediately after the election
results have been declared. If a call comes in the first twelve hours, they
will be asked to join the Cabinet of twenty, during the second twelve given a
position as one of the thirty Ministers of State, and the third twelve, made
one of the forty Under Secretaries, of State, and during the final twelve, a
parliamentary private secretary to a Cabinet Minister.
If the phone
hasn’t rung by then, they remain on the back benches.
Raymond
returned from Leeds the moment the count was over, leaving Joyce to carry out
the traditional “thank you” drive across the constituency-
When he wasn’t
sitting by the phone the following day fie was walking around it, nervously
pushing his glasses back up on his nose. The first call came from his mother,
who had rung to congratulate him.
“On what?” he
asked. “Have you heard something?”
“No, love,” she
said, “I just rang to say how pleased I was about your increased majority.”
460h.”
“And to add how
sorry we were not to see you before you left the constituency, especially as
you had to pass the shop on the way to the highway.”
Raymond
remained silent. Not again, Mother, he wanted to say.
The second call
was from a colleague inquiring if Raymond had been offered a job.
“Not so far,”
he said before learning of his contemporary’s promotion.
The third call
was from one of Joyce’s friends.
“When will she
be back?” another Yorkshire accent inquired ..
“I’ve no idea,”
said Raymond, desperate to get the cafler off the line.
“I’D caH again
this afternoon, then.”
“Fine,” said
Raymond putting the phone down quickly.
He disappeared
into the kitchen to make himself a cheese sandwich, but there wasn’t any
cheese, so he ate stale bread smeared with three-week-old butter. He was
halfway through a second slice when the phone rang.
“Raymond?”
He held his
breath.
“Noel. Brewster.”
He exhaled in
exasperation as he recognized the vicar’s voice.
“Can you read
the
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