“I had to sign a lot more forms to achieve that,” said Giles, shaking hands with his son.
The phone began to ring and a moment later Markham appeared.
“It’s Lord Waddington on the phone,” he said.
“The prince of infidels,” said Giles. “Why don’t you take the call in my study, Emma?”
“It must be serious for him to call me on New Year’s Eve,” said Emma.
“The call is not for you, my lady,” said Markham. “He asked to speak to Lord Barrington.”
“Are you sure, Markham?”
“Quite sure, my lady.”
“Then you’d better go and find out what he wants,” said Emma.
If Jessica and Freddie had caused silence, a phone call from the leader of the Lords caused the rest of the family to all start talking at once. They didn’t fall silent until the door opened and their host reappeared. They all looked at him in anticipation.
“Well, that’s sorted out my New Year’s resolution,” was all Giles had to say.
* * *
“You’re going to have to tell them at some point,” said Emma, as she and Harry walked back to the Manor House early the next morning.
“I’d intended to yesterday afternoon, but Grace rather upstaged me, not to mention Freddie and Giles.”
“Giles couldn’t hide how delighted he was by Freddie’s decision.”
“Did he tell you why Lord Waddington wanted to speak to him?”
“Not a word.”
“You don’t think he could be crossing the floor and joining the infidels?”
“Never. That’s just not his style. But now you’ve handed in the book, is there anything else you have to do before going into hospital?”
“I wish I could do that.”
“Do what?”
“Change the subject without having to include a link line. You’d never get away with it in a book. In real life, when two people are having a conversation, they switch back and forth without thinking about it, sometimes even in midsentence. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a short story recording a real-life conversation, and it was unreadable.”
“How interesting. Now answer the question.”
“No,” said Harry. “Now that the line editor and the proofreader have done their damndest, there’s not a lot more I can do before the book is published.”
“What did the redoubtable Miss Warburton catch you out on this time?”
“I had a New York detective reading the Miranda Rights to a prisoner three years before they came into force.”
“Oops. Anything else?”
“Colons that should have been semicolons, and it appears I use the expression ‘no doubt’ too often throughout the book. Something else everyone does in normal life, but you can’t get away with it in a novel.”
“Will you be going on any book tours this time?”
“I expect so. Most readers will assume it’s another William Warwick novel, and I’ll have to disabuse them of that. And in any case, Aaron is already lining up a tour of the States for me, and my London publishers are pressing me to visit the Bombay Book Festival.”