Best Kept Secret

assume that
everyone else was put on earth to serve them, including my besotted son, who I can only pray will break from the spell she has cast on him before it is too late.’
    It was clear to Mr Siddons from the looks of shock and the whispered chattering that broke out from all quarters of the room that no one had expected this, although he did observe that Mr
Clifton remained remarkably calm. Calm was not a word that would have described Lady Virginia, who was whispering something in Giles’s ear.
    ‘That completes the reading of the will,’ said Mr Siddons. ‘If there are any questions, I will be happy to answer them.’
    ‘Just one,’ said Giles, before anyone else had a chance to speak. ‘How long do I have to contest the will?’
    ‘You can lodge an appeal against judgment in the High Court at any time during the next twenty-eight days, Sir Giles,’ said Mr Siddons, having anticipated the question, and the
questioner.
    If there were any other questions, Sir Giles and Lady Virginia did not hear them, as they stormed out of the room without another word.

12
    ‘I’ LL DO ANYTHING , my darling,’ he said, ‘but please don’t break off our engagement.’
    ‘How can I be expected to face the world after your mother humiliated me in front of your family, your friends and even the servants?’
    ‘I understand,’ said Giles, ‘of course I do, but Mother was clearly not in her right mind. She can’t have realized what she was doing.’
    ‘You said you’ll do anything?’ said Virginia, toying with her engagement ring.
    ‘Anything, my darling.’
    ‘The first thing you must do is sack your secretary. And her replacement must meet with my approval.’
    ‘Consider it done,’ said Giles meekly.
    ‘And tomorrow, you will appoint a leading firm of lawyers to contest the will and, whatever the consequences, you’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure we win.’
    ‘I’ve already consulted Sir Cuthbert Makins KC.’
    ‘Tooth and nail,’ repeated Virginia.
    ‘Tooth and nail,’ said Giles. ‘Anything else?’
    ‘Yes. When the wedding invitations are sent out next week, I, and I alone, will approve the guest list.’
    ‘But that could mean—’
    ‘It will. Because I want everyone who was in that room to know what it feels like to be rejected.’ Giles bowed his head. ‘Ah, I see,’ said Virginia, removing her
engagement ring. ‘So you didn’t really mean you’d do
anything.
’
    ‘Yes I did, my darling. I agree, you alone can decide who’s invited to the wedding.’
    ‘And finally,’ said Virginia, ‘you will instruct Mr Siddons to issue a court order removing every member of the Clifton family from Barrington Hall.’
    ‘But where will they live?’
    ‘I don’t give a damn where they live,’ said Virginia. ‘The time has come for you to decide whether you want to spend the rest of your life with me, or with
them.’
    ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you,’ said Giles.
    ‘Then that’s settled, Bunny,’ said Virginia, as she put the engagement ring back on, and began to undo the buttons on the front of her dress.

    Harry was reading
The Times,
and Emma the
Telegraph,
when the phone rang. The door opened and Denby entered the breakfast room.
    ‘It’s your publisher, Mr Collins, on the line, sir. He wondered if he might have a word with you.’
    ‘I doubt if that’s how he put it,’ said Harry as he folded his newspaper.
    Emma was so engrossed in the article she was reading that she didn’t even look up when her husband left the room. She had come to the end of it by the time he returned.
    ‘Let me guess,’ she said.
    ‘Billy’s had calls from most of the national papers, as well as the BBC, asking if I want to make a statement.’
    ‘What did you say?’
    ‘No comment. I told him there was no need to add fuel to this particular fire.’
    ‘I can’t imagine that will satisfy Billy Collins,’ said Emma. ‘All he’s interested in is selling books.’
    ‘He didn’t expect anything else, and he’s not complaining. He told me he’ll be shipping a third reprint of the paperback into the bookshops early next week.’
    ‘Would you like to hear how the
Telegraph
is reporting it?’
    ‘Do I have to?’ said Harry as he sat back down at the breakfast table.
    Emma ignored the comment and began reading out loud.
    ‘ “The wedding took place yesterday of Sir Giles Barrington MC MP and The Lady Virginia Fenwick, the only daughter of the Ninth Earl of