Best Kept Secret (The Clifton Chronicles 3)

'Why Bridgwater?'

'Probably the nearest home that had a vacancy at the time.'

'Is she still there?'

'As far as I can make out, yes. But I've recently discovered that Barnardo's is planning to send several of their girls to homes in Australia.'

'Why would they do that?'

'It's part of Australia's immigration policy to pay ten pounds to assist young people's passage to their country, and they're particularly keen on girls.'

'I would have thought they'd be more interested in boys.'

'It seems they've already got enough of them,' said Mitchell, displaying a rare grin.

'Then we'd better visit Bridgwater as soon as possible.'

'Hold on, Mrs Clifton. If you appear too enthusiastic, they might put two and two together and work out why you're so interested in Miss J. Smith, and decide you and Mr Clifton aren't suitable foster parents.'

'But what reason could they possibly have to deny us?'

'Your name for a start. Not to mention that you and Mr Clifton weren't married when your son was born.'

'So what do you recommend?' asked Emma quietly.

'Make an application through the usual channels. Don't appear to be in a rush, and make it look as if they are taking the decisions.'

'But how do we know they won't turn us down anyway?'

'You'll have to nudge them in the right direction, won't you, Mrs Clifton.'

'What are you suggesting?'

'When you fill in the application form, you're asked to put down any preferences you might have. It saves everyone a lot of time and trouble. So if you make it clear that you're looking for a girl of around five or six, as you already have a son who's a little older, it should help narrow the field.'

'Any other suggestions?'

'Yes,' replied Mitchell. 'Under religion, tick the box marked no preference.'

'Why will that help?'

'Because Miss Jessica Smith's registration form states mother Jewish, father unknown.'

3

'HOW DID A LIMEY ever get the Silver Star?' asked the immigration officer at Idlewild as he studied Harry's entry visa.

'It's a long story,' said Harry, thinking it might not be wise to tell him that the last time he'd set foot in New York he'd been arrested for murder.

'Have a great time while you're in the States.' The officer shook Harry by the hand.

'Thank you,' said Harry, trying not to look surprised as he passed through immigration and followed the signs to the baggage claim area. As he waited for his suitcase to appear, he once again checked his arrival instructions. He was to be met by Viking's chief publicist, who would accompany him to his hotel and brief him on his schedule. Whenever he visited a city in Britain, he was always accompanied by the local sales rep, so he wasn't quite sure what a publicist was.

After retrieving his old school trunk, Harry made his way towards customs. An officer asked him to open the trunk, made a cursory check, then chalked a large cross on the side before ushering him through. Harry walked under a huge semi-circular sign that declared Welcome to New York, above a beaming photograph of the mayor, William O'Dwyer.

Once he emerged into the arrivals hall, he was greeted by a row of uniformed chauffeurs holding up name cards. He searched for 'Clifton' and, when he spotted it, smiled at the driver and said, 'That's me.'

'Good to meet you, Mr Clifton. I'm Charlie.' He grabbed Harry's heavy trunk as if it was a briefcase. 'And this is your publicist, Natalie.'

Harry turned to see a young woman who had been referred to on his instructions simply as 'N. Redwood'. She was almost as tall as him, with fashionably cut blonde hair, blue eyes, and teeth straighter and whiter than any he'd ever seen, except for on a billboard advertising toothpaste. If that wasn't enough, her head rested on an hourglass figure. Harry had never come across anything like Natalie in post-war, ration-book Britain.

'Nice to meet you, Miss Redwood,' he said, shaking her hand.

'And it's good to meet you, Harry,' she replied. 'Do call me Natalie,' she added as they followed Charlie out of the concourse. 'I'm a huge fan. I just love William Warwick, and have no doubt your latest book is going to be another winner.'

Once they reached the kerb, Charlie opened the rear door of the longest limousine Harry had ever seen. Harry stood aside to allow Natalie to get in first.

'Oh, I do love the English,' she said as he climbed in beside her, and the limo joined a stream of traffic making its slow progress into New York. 'First, we'll be going to your hotel. I've booked you into the Pierre, where you have a suite on the eleventh floor. I've left just enough time in your schedule for you to freshen up before you join Mr Guinzburg for lunch at the Harvard Club. By the way, he's looking forward to meeting you.'

'Me too,' said Henry. 'He published my prison diaries, as well as the first William Warwick novel, so I've a lot to thank him for.'

'And he's invested a great deal of time and money to make sure Nothing Ventured gets on to the bestseller list, and he asked me to brief you fully on how we plan to go about that.'

'Please do,' said Harry as he glanced out of the window to enjoy sights he'd last seen from the back of a yellow prison bus that was taking him off to a jail cell rather than a suite at the Pierre Hotel.

A hand touched his leg. 'There's a lot we have to cover before you see Mr Guinzburg.' Natalie handed him a thick blue folder. 'Let me start by explaining how we intend to go about getting your book on to the bestseller list, because it's very different from the way you do things in England.'

Harry opened the folder and tried to concentrate. He'd never before sat next to a woman who looked as if she'd been poured into her dress.

'In America,' Natalie continued, 'you've only got three weeks to make sure your book hits the New York Times bestseller list. If you don't make it into the top fifteen during that time, the bookstores will pack up their stock of Nothing Ventured and return them to the publisher.'

'That's crazy,' said Harry. 'In England once a bookseller has placed an order, as far as the publisher is concerned the book is sold.'

'You don't offer bookstores a sale or return option?'

'Certainly not,' said Harry, shocked by the idea.

'And is it also true that you still sell books without offering a discount?'

'Yes, of course.'

'Well, you're going to find that's the other big difference over here, because if you do make it into the top fifteen, the cover price will automatically be halved, and your book will be moved to the back of the store.'

'Why? Surely a bestseller should be prominently displayed at the front of the shop, even in the window, and certainly not be discounted.'

'Not since the advertising boys discovered that if a customer comes in looking for a particular bestseller, and they have to go to the back of the store to find it, one in five customers buys two more books on their way to the sales counter, while one in three picks up another one.'

'Clever, but I'm not sure that will ever catch on in England.'

'I suspect it will only be a matter of time, but at least you'll now appreciate why it's so important to get your book on the list as quickly as possible, because once the price is halved, you're likely to stay in the top fifteen for several weeks. In fact, it's harder to get off the list than to get on. But if you fail, Nothing Ventured will have disappeared from the bookshelves a month today, and we will have lost a great deal of money.'